Ceddanne Rafaela didn’t look like a top prospect in Saturday’s Spring Breakout game between the Red Sox and Braves.
He looked like a Major Leaguer.
In the exhibition game, one of 16 inaugural top-prospect showcases taking place around the league this weekend, Rafaela looked like a big fish in a small – albeit promising – pond. He went 1-for-2 with a towering three-run homer, his fourth round-tripper of the preseason, though it won’t count towards his spring stat line.
The Curaçao native is still technically a rookie, and a top-100 MLB prospect in rankings by Baseball America (No. 94), MLB Pipeline (No. 76), and Baseball Prospectus (No. 59), but he’s has spent the spring proving he no longer belongs on such lists. His energy is that of someone who’s aged out of that stage of his career, not unlike a college student who goes to visit his old high school, only to realize that he’s outgrown that version of himself and needs to continue moving onward and upward.
Rafaela broke out in ’22 when he hit .299 with a .880 OPS over 116 games between High- and Double-A, but the truly eye-catching, jaw-dropping development was his defensive prowess. He’d been a strong middle infielder, but upon moving to the outfield, he became a human highlight reel, leading Double-A Portland manager Chad Epperson to declare that the then-21-year-old was better defensively than Mookie Betts had been at the same stage of his minor-league career, when he’d made a similar position change.
“Rafa, you want him standing (in the outfield) but he’s a heck of a shortstop too,” Triple-A manager Chad Tracy said on the broadcast. Moments later, Rafaela made an expert running catch and showed off his cannon of an arm with a successful throw to second.
Even after a pair of promotions led Rafaela from Double-A to his big-league debut late last August, there was no guarantee he’d start the upcoming season in the Majors. Even though evaluators in and outside of the organization already viewed him as a Gold Glove-caliber defender, Sox had opted not to promote him to Triple-A at the start of last season because they wanted to see more patience and pitch selectiveness.
In 28 big-league games last year, Rafaela hit .241 with 20 hits, six doubles, and a pair of home runs, but struck out 28 times and only drew four walks. It’s a small sample size, especially for a rookie joining a team in chaos, but it suggested he wasn’t quite ready. At the very least, he’d need to fight hard this spring to prove otherwise, which is what he’s been doing.
A year after the non-promotion, Epperson believes Rafaela has accelerated his timeline to the point of big-league readiness.
“His swing decisions are better,” the Sea Dogs skipper said during Saturday’s broadcast. “Every time I look up, he’s got a hit… You can tell, he looks very comfortable at the plate right now.”
There are still areas in need of improvement. Epperson noted that Rafaela’s timing against fastballs is a bit late, but as that’s partially due to trying to be more patient in his at-bats, he’s confident Rafaela will balance the two.
“He’s a smart kid, he’ll figure it out, and he wants to compete,” he said.
That competition should be in the big leagues.
