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The Boston Red Sox and rookie second baseman Kristian Campbell broke the bank on Wednesday, agreeing to an eight year contract extension that sees the club dishing out $60 million through 2034.
But wait, there’s more.
The club also made sure to lock up its new ace, inking Garrett Crochet a six-year keeper worth $170 million. Crochet is fresh off his best season as a starter, which saw him take a heaping of the workload for the MLB’s worst-performing team last season, the Chicago White Sox. He posted a 3.58 ERA through 32 starts, totaling 146 innings and 209 punchouts, good enough for fourth-best in the American League.
Both signings are great news for Red Sox fans, who were hoping to see the team extend the left-handed pitcher before the regular season started. The deals provide significant value for Boston too, with Campbell only set to receive close to eight million per year and Crochet to get just over $28 million annually.
For perspective, six of the league’s ten highest paid pitchers are being dealt over $30 million in 2025 alone. Boston was able to make a fair deal to a worthy player, without overpaying or succumbing to salary pressures.
With Campbell’s deal, it may seem like a scenario where the club performs highway robbery on a young, naive player and their agent. However, this deal works out great for the young infielder. With Boston having Campbell’s rights for the first six years of his career anyway, this gives him an opportunity to earn more per season than what he would have had he gone the arbitration route every year.
When the club landed veteran free agent Alex Bregman on a three-year deal in the offseason, fans and media alike speculated that the 31 year-old would be carrying out most of the second base duties this season. This came to a halt when the team announced Bregman would continue to handle the hot corner, forcing longtime third baseman Rafael Devers to become the team’s full-time designated hitter.
With that, an open competition began in the spring for the starting job. The 2023 fourth-round selection, who hit .327 with 21 homers and 82 RBI across his minor league career, shined in the spring and was given the opening day start in Texas against the Rangers.
Campbell looked timid in his big league debut but secured his first major league hit, delivering a clutch single in the ninth inning to help propel the Red Sox to a 5-2 opening day victory.
Since then, Campbell has been one of the few bright spots on an otherwise disappointing team to start the 2025 season. He has six hits in 16 at-bats and has one of the team’s three home runs to start the year.
After the extensions of both young stars, the team may carry out a similar approach once it calls up its next two highest prospects, shortstop Marcelo Mayer and MLB’s No. 2 prospect Roman Anthony. With current shortstop Trevor Story slowly declining after playing through injuries the last few seasons, Mayer may be called up sooner rather than later. The same can be said for Anthony, who’s homered twice in his first three games in Worcester.
Cedanne Rafaela had an average rookie campaign in 2024, seeing him drive in an impressive 75 runs as the last hitter in the lineup. However, he’s presented a big problem with swing-and-misses, striking out over 150 times last year. This is an issue that has continued to plague his plate appearances this season as well. If he can’t shake this, expect Anthony to patrol center field for the Sox later down the line this season.
If both Mayer and Anthony live up to even half of what has been hyped up about them, the team will likely fork over extensions to them too, cementing an extremely bright, young core with homegrown talent.
Due to former general manager Chaim Bloom’s unwillingness to spend necessary cash during his tenure in Boston, the Red Sox have had a damaged reputation over the past five years, but credit must be given to general manager Craig Breslow. The front office has made it abundantly clear that they want to shake off any old labels, and these deals prove that.
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