Craig Breslow, the Red Sox’s new chief baseball officer, made his first transaction on Friday. In exchange for Isaiah Campbell, the new manager sent infielder Luis Uras to the Mariners.
Who exactly is Campbell? The 26-year-old right-handed reliever debuted in the major leagues for Seattle in 2023. In 27 appearances (28 23 innings), he had a 2.83 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP. Opponents only batted.210 against him. He only gave up 6.9 hits per nine innings.
He also recorded an impressive 27.5% strikeout percentage (33 strikeouts, 120 batters faced).
Seattle initially drafted Campbell, a native of Portugal, 76th overall in 2019 out of the University of Arkansas.
He throws a four-seam fastball, slider and sweeper, according to his Baseball Savant page. The 224 fastballs he threw for Seattle in ‘23 averaged 95 mph. His slider was his most effective pitch as opponents went just 7-for-51 (.137 batting average) with one extra-base hit (double) and .157 slugging percentage against it.
Opponents went 5-for-15 (.333) against his sweeper but the pitch had an expected batting average of .231.
He walked 13 batters (4.1 walks per innings) in his 28 ⅔ innings for Seattle this past season. But he has averaged just 2.5 walks per nine innings in his minor league career.
Campbell has a 2.01 ERA in 61 minor league career outings (89 ⅓ innings). He didn’t pitch in 2019 after being drafted. He didn’t pitch at all in 2020 when COVID canceled the minor league season.
According to MLB.com, he then appeared in just five games in 2021 due to surgery to remove bone spurs in his right elbow.
In 24 relief innings with Double-A Arkansas this season, he has a 2.63 ERA.
