The 2024 StS MiLB Player of the Year: Second Base

Analysis by Brian Shanks
Intro: RFF

Scout the Statline has had one clear objective since its inception three years ago: to help YOU, our followers gain a strategic advantage in the ever-changing world of fantasy baseball. We achieve this through our advanced predictive data model, which analyzes players and prospects of various ages and levels using extensive research known as Peak Projections. This model incorporates MLB equivalencies and aging curves in its calculations, allowing us to project future statistical outcomes for thousands of players based on their current performances on a daily basis.

With that said, we invite you to join us on our victory lap for the 2024 season as we celebrate our success in identifying the top MiLB prospects in the game today as our talented writers recap the winners of the Player of the Year award at each position, determined by our User poll (via Twitter/X), the Scout the Statline Staff, and our Peak Projections Model.

For the MiLB 2B Player of the Year we had our first unanimous selection as he swept all three categories! So without further ado the winner of both the Staff and Twitter/X polls as well as the top player at the second base position on Peak Projections.

Scout the Statline presents our 2B MiLB Player of the Year:

KRISTIAN CAMPBELL – BOSTON RED SOX

22 years old, standing 6’3 and at 210 lbs
Drafted in the 4th Round of the ’23 MLB Draft by the Red Sox

Analysis – Brian Shanks

Let’s get the background out of the way to kick things off shall we. Kristian Eron Campbell was drafted in the 4th round of the 2023 MLB Amateur Draft out of Georgia Tech. He only spent one season with the Yellowjackets where he compiled a slash line of .376/.484/.549, 29 walks and only 17 strikeouts in 217 plate appearances. Once drafted the Boston Red Sox inserted Kristian at their Rookie affiliate for 29 plate appearances where he showcased a slash line of .391/.517/.565 and was quickly promoted to High-A. He continued to show off his talents as he was granted an extra 55 plate appearances at Greenville to the tune of .267/.400/.422. This was only the seasoning for the steak, ladies and gentlemen.

While still in Greenville to begin 2024, the Boston Red Sox allowed Campbell to show that he was too advanced for this league. In 177 plate appearances, the Red Sox brass saw enough after Kristian produced a .306/.418/.558 line during that span and promoted him to Double-A.

This is where me and my StS comrades’ ears perked up! We have been advocates of Campbell’s all season and that hasn’t wavered as you can see from the clean sweep in our Staff poll.

Double-A stats have long been my favorite to really start looking into a player’s profile. Kristian did not disappoint — matter of fact, he completely decimated the competition while at Portland.

In his 255 plate appearances at Double-A, he had an eye-popping slash line of .362/.463/.582. This earned him yet another promotion in 2024 to the Triple-A level.

Once he made it to Worcester, Kristian showed no signs of slowing down against stiffer competition. In 85 plate appearances he proved that he can hang with the upper echelons of MiLB with a slash of .286/.412/.486.

Now I didn’t mention any other counting stats and I did it on purpose. The power started out as middling but as he started to get more comfortable with the higher quality arms he started hitting more shots. He only had one homerun in 2023 but that ballooned up to 20 in 2024. Kristian has also shown some speed but I don’t think that is gonna be a calling card here. He did swipe 24 stolen bases across his three affiliate stops but was also caught eight times in 2024.

My eyes light up when I come across scouting reports that describe a player that possesses “quick wrists” or is a “twitchy athlete” but the one that I’ve been hearing on Campbell’s swing is “controlled violence”. If that doesn’t get your juices flowing on a prospect, I don’t know what will! And from the results of the StS User/X poll, it looks like it does.

One more little tidbit about Campbell was that he was able to produce at three different positions: Centerfield, shortstop and second base. My hope is he winds up at 2nd because this would just make his profile even more sexier.

He joined three other high-quality prospects in the Boston organization at Triple-A in Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel and Marcelo Mayer. A future with these four talents must have the diehards in Boston jumping for joy.

The accolades for Kristian are starting to pile up here as he is ranked by the Scout the Statline model as the ninth highest rated player with a historical player comp to Andrew McCutchen!

As you can see below, Peak Projections predicts that he will have a WRC+ of 127.5, BA .276, OBP .360, SLG .462 with 21 homers and 15 stolen bases at his peak performance.

Go get ’em!

Don’t take my word for it. Check out what the fellas at “The Dynasty Dingers Podcast” think about Kristian Campbell and the second base candidates in the video below.