Coming off a breakout 2022 in which he emerged as the fastest-rising prospect in the Red Sox system, everything seemed to be coming up Ceddanne Rafaela’s way entering spring training.
The 22-year-old from Curaçao had been added to the 40-man roster, was playing every day for the big league club in camp and was even offered a chance to play with Team Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic — an opportunity he turned down in favor of immersing himself with his big league teammates.
It seemed like a no-brainer Rafaela would start the season in Triple-A, but when camp broke he was given the disappointing news that he’d be starting off back in Double-A, where he spent the bulk of last season.
Why? For all his immense talent and a flair for the highlight-reel play in center field, the club felt Rafaela had more work to do refining his approach at the plate.
“Defensively and on the bases, he’s showing all the skill that he has. Frankly, the skill that he has in those areas is probably beyond that level,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom told the Herald earlier this week. “But we sent him there for a reason.”
Hearing that news was undoubtedly disappointing, but for Rafaela the mantra has been simple. It’s not about where you start, but where you finish.
“I’m making better (at bats) this year,” Rafaela said Wednesday before Portland’s game against the Hartford Yard Goats. “Even if the numbers are not what I expect right now, I’m happy with how it’s going right now.”
So far Rafaela hasn’t gotten the same results in Portland as he did much of last year. The Red Sox’ No. 3 prospect is currently batting .261 with only one home run through 32 games after hitting 21 last year, including 12 over 71 games at Double-A following his midseason promotion.
But that’s partially a product of the adjustments Rafaela is trying to incorporate into his game. Typically aggressive and free-swinging at the plate, Rafaela had one of the highest chase rates in the Eastern League last season but also proved capable of driving the ball and doing serious damage when he swung at pitches in the zone. The goal now is to cut down on the bad swing decisions and put together better at-bats.
Brian Abraham, the Red Sox director of player development, said they don’t expect things to change overnight and understand there may be some bumps in the road along the way.
“It’s not as day to day as some people may look at it, it’s a bigger picture, it’s an approach, it’s a process,” Abraham said. “I think he’s made some progress in that, certainly not the point where he’s ready for a Triple-A call-up tomorrow, but we’re seeing adjustments, we’re seeing a better overall approach and understanding of the strike zone.”
If Rafaela is able to gain greater mastery of the strike zone, he has the tools to potentially become a game-breaker. He is already considered a Gold Glove-caliber center fielder and whenever he gets on base he is capable of wreaking havoc.
Just ask the Somerset Patriots, against whom Rafaela stole nine bases in two games last weekend, including an absurd six last Saturday alone.
“The last couple of years I wanted to steal 30 bases and always fell short,” said Rafaela, who swiped 28 bags last year and is already up to 20 so far in 2023. “This year (I want) to get 30 bases for sure.”
Abraham said that while Rafaela was disappointed to hear he’d be starting in Double-A, he took the news as well as he could have hoped and has taken the club’s feedback to heart. Given that he’s already on the 40-man, Rafaela may still be just one outfield injury in the big leagues away from making his MLB debut — look no further than Enmanuel Valdez, Rafaela’s spring training running mate who got pressed into duty after Christian Arroyo and Yu Chang both got hurt.
However long it takes, Rafaela said he’s determined to put in the work and take the next step toward realizing his big league dream.
“I was hoping to start in Triple-A but I didn’t really think about it that much,” Rafaela said. “It doesn’t matter where I start, it’s where I finish this year.”
Last Saturday St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras took advantage of a quirk in MLB’s new pitch clock rules to goad Kenley Jansen into a pair of quick pitch violations, drawing a walk to help the Cardinals mount their eventual comeback win.
Jansen took responsibility for not understanding the rules better, but he also suggested Contreras got away with gamesmanship. MLB apparently agreed.
According to an Associated Press report, MLB recently sent a memo to clubs warning hitters against trying to trick pitchers into committing quick pitch violations. The memo essentially calls out Contreras for appearing ready to hit while also keeping one foot out of the batter’s box and says similar attempts by players in the future could result in a warning, an automatic strike or potentially even club discipline.
“We have advised umpires that conduct by batters designed to deceive a pitcher into beginning their windup or coming to the set position early — including pretending to be in the batter’s box and alert to the pitcher — constitutes circumvention under the pace of game regulations,” the memo reads, according to the AP.
The new pitch clock rules dictate that a batter must be alert to the pitcher and have both feet in the batter’s box by the time there is eight seconds left on the timer, but before that point pitchers must also wait until the batter has both feet in the box and is alert before they can deliver the next pitch.
Going forward if any similar incidents as last week’s Jansen-Contreras affair take place, umpires won’t call a quick pitch violation and an automatic ball but will instead issue a warning to the batter. Additional attempts could lead to an automatic strike, and the memo said clubs with multiple players engaging in such conduct would be subject to penalties.
Don’t look now, but Aaron Judge is at it again.
Despite missing 11 days with a hip strain in late April and early May, the New York Yankees slugger still ranks among the American League leaders in home runs. Entering Saturday Judge was up to 13 on the season, including seven in his last seven games entering Saturday.
Judge is currently one behind Texas’ Adolis Garcia (14) for the AL lead and is tied for second with Rafael Devers (13), this despite the fact that he’s only played 36 games compared to Garcia’s 43 and Devers’ 44.
Devers, who had led the AL in homers for much of the season, was mired in a bit of a power outage the past few weeks. Heading into Friday Devers only had one home run in the month of May, a grand slam back on May 4 against Toronto, and followed that up with a 12-game drought. He broke out in a big way against San Diego though, going deep twice in Boston’s 6-1 win.
Wellesley’s Mike Vasil, a former BC High and University of Virginia star, has gotten off to a tremendous start since being promoted to Double-A to start the season.
Through his first seven starts the New York Mets prospect is 1-1 with a 2.19 ERA and a remarkable 46 strikeouts against just six walks over 37.0 innings for the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. His 0.70 walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) leads the Eastern League and he also ranks first in the league in walk rate (4.3%) and second in strikeout rate (33.3%), first in opponent’s batting average (.153) and first in batting average on balls in play (.198).
The only other pitcher in the Eastern League with remotely comparable numbers was Red Sox prospect Shane Drohan, who unsurprisingly was just promoted to Triple-A and made his Worcester Red Sox debut on Thursday. Drohan had a 1.32 ERA over his first six starts in Portland but met a rude welcome in Worcester, where he allowed five runs on three walks and three home runs but also struck out six over five innings of work.
With the season approaching the two-month mark we’ve seen enough to have a decent idea of where the Red Sox and everyone else stands. That being the case, now feels like as good a time as any to take some reader questions for an upcoming Red Sox mailbag.
Please submit your Red Sox related questions to mcerullo@bostonherald.com or by Twitter direct message at @MacCerullo. We’ll look to answer as many as we can in next Sunday’s MLB column.