When it comes to top prospects, it’s easy to get carried away. The possibilities seem endless and if you’re not careful you might find yourself penciling a player in as an All-Star before they’ve even played a big league game.

Yet whatever hype may have originally surrounded Kristian Campbell, the rookie has so far lived up to the bill.

Now more than a month into his rookie season, Campbell has proven his meteoric rise through the minor leagues was no fluke and has quickly established himself as a legitimate MLB contributor. The 22-year-old has been among Boston’s most consistent hitters, and Friday he was honored as the American League’s Rookie of the Month for April after batting .301 with four home runs, 12 RBI, a .902 OPS and 1.1 wins above replacement through his first 29 career games entering Saturday.

Those totals collectively rank among the best on the team and put Campbell as one of the early favorites for the American League Rookie of the Year award.

“He’s done a lot of good things, offensively he dominates the strike zone and he hits the ball hard the other way. He’s learning too, which is the best thing,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Defensively he’s getting better too, working to his right, that play has been hard on him since he got here, turning double plays great, so far so good.”

As of this writing Campbell leads all AL rookie position players with 1.1 WAR, beating out Tampa Bay outfielder Kameron Misner (1.0), and is tied with Athletics reliever Justin Sterner (1.1) for the top AL rookie mark overall. He also leads all AL rookies in plate appearances (123), runs scored (18), extra-base hits (12) and on-base percentage (.407).

If he maintains his current pace, Campbell is in line to comfortably clear 5.0 WAR for the season, which generally translates to All-Star caliber production. If he achieves that benchmark, Campbell would become just the seventh Red Sox rookie to post a 5-WAR season, joining Fred Lynn (7.4, 1975), Carlton Fisk (7.3, 1972), Ted Williams (6.7, 1939), Nomar Garciaparra (6.6, 1997), Johnny Pesky (6.2, 1942) and Freddy Parent (5.0, 1901).

Not bad company to be in.

Even setting aside his rookie status, Campbell’s production stacks up well against the best in the league full-stop. His .407 OBP ranks fourth in the AL among all qualifying players, and he also ranks inside the top-10 in OPS, doubles (8) and walks (19).

Defensively Campbell has endured some growing pains, but overall he’s performed well despite not having much experience at second base relative to his peers. Fangraphs currently has the rookie at minus-2 defensive runs saved, which is below average, but he’s also in the middle of the pack as far as innings played, double plays, assists and putouts.

Translation, Campbell hasn’t been a liability defensively, and combined with his offensive contributions he’s represented a sizable improvement over what Boston has gotten from its second basemen over the past two seasons.

According to Baseball Reference, Red Sox second basemen collectively rank fourth in MLB in Wins Above Average, compared with 25th last season and 28th in 2023. That includes some contributions from David Hamilton and Romy Gonzalez as well, but Campbell has gotten the lion’s share of the playing time and to this point has provided needed stability to a position that has been a problem for Boston ever since Dustin Pedroia’s retirement.

Can Campbell keep it up? Everyone struggles at some point, but it would be foolish to bet against him given that over the past year he’s now produced at the High-A, Double-A, Triple-A and MLB levels without ever skipping a beat.

And with the toughest transition of them all behind him, Campbell might just be getting started.

Abreu on All-Star trajectory

Unlike Campbell, who finished last season as a consensus top-five prospect in baseball, Wilyer Abreu was never particularly heralded as a minor leaguer. Even though his plate discipline and outfield arm were recognized by evaluators as advanced tools early on, he wasn’t regarded as the kind of top-100 guy that typically generates headlines and excitement.

That lack of hype has probably colored perceptions of Abreu ever since, even as he’s blossomed into a highly productive major leaguer.

Last year Abreu became the first Red Sox rookie to win a Gold Glove since Fred Lynn in 1975. He finished sixth in the AL Rookie of the Year vote and positively impacted the club in just about every area. Yet this past winter he was still subject to offseason trade speculation, either as the primary return for a big-time pitcher or in service of balancing the lineup and clearing the club’s outfield logjam.

Players like Abreu are usually viewed by fans as untouchable, so have we been selling him short? Given the way he’s started this season, the question may no longer be “is Abreu underrated?”

At this point, maybe it should be “is Abreu turning into a star?”

Through the first month of the season Abreu has been one of Boston’s best all-around players and has put together a strong early case

to start the All-Star Game for the American League. His 1.6 WAR ranks second among AL outfielders behind only New York’s Aaron Judge, and he ranks fourth in the AL overall in walks (20), sixth in OPS (.929) and RBI (21), and seventh in on-base percentage (.403).

He also has plus-four defensive runs saved, which trails only Ceddanne Rafaela and Cleveland’s Steven Kwan for the best mark among AL outfielders and is two shy of the overall MLB lead.

Abreu’s early dominance is especially impressive when you consider he missed half of spring training with a gastrointestinal illness and was playing catchup over the final three weeks. Cora said the outfielder has been excellent, and asked if he feels Abreu gets enough credit around the game, the Red Sox manager said he’s been singing his praises for the last two years.

Fellow outfielder Jarren Duran echoed that point.

“We know how great he is,” Duran said. “I’m not sure how the fans think or outside of baseball, but he’s putting himself on notice by winning a Gold Glove last year and he’s absolutely raking this year, so I think it’s going to come as he gets more years in the league that people are going to start taking notice, but as teammates we’ve definitely taken notice.”

As for Abreu, he told the Herald on Friday that he never concerned himself with his lack of prospect hype coming up and that the most important thing for him has always been staying healthy and available. He added that he’s happy with the way he’s started the season, but when asked if being an All-Star is something that motivates him, he downplayed the suggestion.

“Obviously every ballplayer wants to be in that game and everybody wants to be part of it, but that’s not something that’s on my mind right now, that’s not something I’m pursuing or anything like that,” Abreu said Friday via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “I’m just trying to stay healthy and play the game every day and see what happens.”

Even still, with each game that goes by, Abreu is becoming harder to ignore.

Few good options for Sox at first

It’s never a good thing when a team sustains a significant injury to an everyday player, but the Red Sox are uniquely ill-equipped to get by without Triston Casas.

If it had been any other infield position the Red Sox could have likely called up top prospect Marcelo Mayer to fill the void, and had an outfielder gone down the club could have promoted Roman Anthony — MLB’s consensus No. 1 prospect. But behind Casas the Red Sox have very little first base depth, leaving the club with few good options as they face another extended absence from the 25-year-old.

For now Romy Gonzalez will likely get the lion’s share of the playing time at first, but after him things get dicey.

Saturday the Red Sox called up Abraham Toro to fill Casas’ spot on the roster, but while the utility man has six years of MLB experience, he has seen limited action at first base and has only appeared in 15 games at the position in his big league career. So while Toro is technically the new backup first baseman, he’s mainly in Boston to fill Gonzalez’s original bench role.

The other minor league options behind Toro don’t inspire confidence either. Nathan Hickey, who has been Worcester’s primary first baseman, has never appeared in the majors, and the only other options with the WooSox currently on the 40-man roster are utility man Nick Sogard and infielder Vaughn Grissom, a second baseman who has appeared in four games at first for the WooSox this season. Maybe he could get a look, but trying to make that transition at first base would be a tall order.

At some point the Red Sox will almost certainly have to make some kind of external addition, but if they were inclined the Red Sox could also get creative with their existing big league roster.

Connor Wong, who was just activated from the IL on Friday, has appeared in 14 career games at first base, including six starts. Given how well Carlos Narvaez played behind the plate during his absence, the Red Sox could conceivably keep the rookie behind the dish by occasionally starting Wong at first, ensuring both players receive regular playing time while allowing Gonzalez some time off his feet.

The other option, which will surely be the preferred choice among many fans but likely won’t be considered by the team, would be shifting Rafael Devers from designated hitter to first base. That probably won’t happen, however, given that the Red Sox already caused friction with their star slugger once by moving him off third base and might be hesitant about upsetting the apple cart again with another midseason position change.

Cora already said earlier this season that the club won’t consider playing Devers at third even to give Bregman a day off so he can focus on being the DH, and he reiterated that point on Saturday as well. The idea of him suddenly playing him at first would be a jarring change of course.

Either way, losing Casas is a brutal blow, both for the club and for a player who has already endured several other significant injury setbacks early in his career.