If the Boston Red Sox can be sure of one thing in the 2025 season, it’s that they have plenty of middle infield talent to stack their roster with. The hard part will be choosing between them at spring training.
The Red Sox cycled through a dozen shortstops and second basemen while their expected starters healed injuries last season. Trevor Story and Vaughn Grissom’s long-term injuries forced the Sox to explore all their options in the middle infield last year, and they discovered a few of them weren’t great.
Ceddanne Rafaela adjusted well to shortstop after a few weeks in Story’s stead. Boston is banking on Story’s health next season — a fourth season shelved with an injury would be more than just bad luck. Even if Story can’t play all year, though, the Red Sox will have Rafaela and top prospect Marcelo Mayer as fallback options. Second base will be Boston’s most crowded position. But who will get the starting job on Opening Day?
An excess of players at any position sounds like a great problem to have, but none of the Red Sox’s second base options are particularly experienced, and some lack big-league experience altogether. Grissom, David Hamilton, Enmanuel Valdez, Nick Sogard, Romy González and top prospect Kristian Campbell will all compete for the same job at spring training.
Barring any trades or injuries, Valdez is probably out of the running. He struggled on both sides of the ball with the Red Sox this season, to the tune of a .214/.270/.363 slash line, six errors and a fair few more miscues over 76 games. He was largely unreliable in the infield and at the plate.
Hamilton improved on defense throughout the season but was worse than Valdez at his lowest points. He clocked 10 errors between shortstop and second base this season, but his offensive contributions were worth keeping him in games after his improvements. He slashed .248/.303/.395 with 33 stolen bases in 98 games.
Who will be the starting second baseman for the Red Sox in 2025?
Valdez and Hamilton are lefty bats, which may disadvantage them in the starting second base race. The Sox are packed with lefty talent and they need to insert more righties wherever they can to get an advantage against lefty pitchers. Grissom, Sogard, González and Campbell can all hit from the right side.
Despite González’s great first year with the Red Sox, they’ll probably keep him on the bench to be used in a utility role. His defensive versatility is unmatched by anyone else on the team and he had success as a pinch-hitter with three homers.
Sogard is a switch-hitter who slashed .273/.326/.325 with four doubles and eight RBI over 31 games for the Sox. He can play second base, third and shortstop, and he posted a perfect fielding percentage over his 18 appearances there.
Campbell is yet to make his major league debut, but he posted an incredible season over three levels of the minor leagues that earned him Player of the Year honors from multiple publications. He slashed .330/.439/.558 with a .997 OPS over 115 games across three levels of the minor leagues. Campbell made three errors over 36 appearances at second base, all at the Double-A level.
Grissom’s Red Sox career didn’t begin well. Two hamstring strains kept him in the minor leagues for most of the year, and he struggled in his early appearances with Boston — his .190/.246/.219 season slash line reflects his early cold streak. Grissom got hot in September, though, and batted .338/.467/.507 over 23 games between Triple-A and the majors. He plays more solid defense than Valdez or Hamilton and has a bit more pop off his bat than Sogard.
Depending on the candidates’ spring training performances, the starting second baseman job will most likely come down to Grissom and Campbell. Their right-handedness will give them an advantage over Boston’s lefty options and their defense is overall more reliable. For the sake of choosing one option, we’ll go with Grissom due to Campbell’s lack of major league experience, but Campbell shouldn’t be completely ruled out after his outstanding breakout season.
