Ceddanne Rafaela headlines the Red Sox Prospect Watch
The Boston Red Sox appear to be turning things around. That’s exciting. Rafael Devers is one of the best players in baseball right now. Xander Bogaerts has been incredible, and J.D. Martinez is back to being a hitting machine. However, for a while it was just those three. No one else was really producing.
Now Trevor Story is looking like the big signing that he was. Jackie Bradley Jr. and Christian Vazquez have had some big hits. Alex Verdugo’s swing is looking better. Franchy Cordero has performed head-and-shoulders above what he was doing in the bigs last year (shoutout for that walk-off grand slam, I had written this part before it happened and now I’m extra happy I had mentioned him). Even the bullpen has been a lot less shaky (John Schreiber has been the hero and helped turn things around).
All this has given fans a lot more hope. While that’s awesome, it makes my job a little bit harder. Why? Because people don’t care about the minor leagues as much when the Major League team is playing at a high level.
The good news is, the Red Sox have one of the most exciting farm systems in baseball. So they can keep your attention even when the team is firing on all cylinders. And this week that was proven by what could be remembered as the signature game of Ceddanne Rafaela’s breakout season.