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Boston Red Sox Prospects: Who should be “untouchable” in trades?

By Hunter Noll

FT. MYERS, FL - FEBRUARY 21: Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom of the Boston Red Sox addresses the media during a press conference during a spring training team workout on February 21, 2021 at jetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
FT. MYERS, FL - FEBRUARY 21: Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom of the Boston Red Sox addresses the media during a press conference during a spring training team workout on February 21, 2021 at jetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /
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BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 20: The full moon raising while the Boston Red Sox play against the Houston Astros in Game Five of the American League Championship Series at Fenway Park on October 20, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images) /

Red Sox 27th-ranked prospect, Ceddanne Rafaela (wherever)

Okay if you didn’t see this one coming you haven’t been paying attention to my Twitter for the last 14 months. Ceddanne Rafaela is an elite prospect. There aren’t 100 prospects better than him in baseball. I will stand by these statements until someone can prove me wrong.

What arguments could I possibly make for the 27th-ranked prospect in the Red Sox system? A system that has its fourth-ranked prospect (Bello) being its last in the Top-100 (sitting at 84)?

Well let’s see. Rafaela is 21 and playing in High-A right now. Doing so, he’s building off a breakout campaign in 2021 in Low-A. That year saw him really start to find his swing and pop as the season went on. He finished with a solid .251/.305/.424 slash line with 20 doubles, nine triple, and 10 home runs. The right-handed hitter had 53 runs batted in, 73 more runs scored, and 23 steals.

Oh, and he played elite (seriously we’re talking Gold Glove) defense at shortstop, third base, second base, and in the outfield.

Now this season, he’s doing the same thing on defense. Rafaela looks incredibly smooth in the field, like he’s gliding to the ball. Amazing instincts in the outfield and an elite arm as well. Tracks the ball well, reads it off the bat, and has fantastic speed to get to nearly anything, it’s all there.

On the offensive side of things, I guess you could say it’s going well. He was named the MiLB hitter of the month in April. And he’s hitting even better in May.

Overall this season, Rafaela has a .316/.357/.573 slash line with 13 doubles, two triples, and nine home runs. He’s driven in 30 runs and scored 35 more, to go along with 11 steals.

How good are those numbers? Well in the South Atlantic League he’s fifth in batting average, third in doubles, eighth in triples, sixth in homers, sixth in RBI, first in runs scored, eighth in steals, and fifth in slugging percentage. That’s absurd.

Rafaela is not high up in the pecking order either. So he’s definitely not a main trade piece. It would hurt my soul if they traded him. I promise the Red Sox would be regretting it a few years down the line.

Ceddanne Chipper Nicasio Marte Rafaela is more than just the best name in baseball. The Boston Red Sox selling low on him just as he’s starting to prove his potential would be a travesty. I said last season that Boston fans would be drooling over Rafaela sometime down the road. Let me change that. The entire baseball world will be drooling over the Curacao native in the not-too-distant future.

dark. Next. Red Sox plan to call up Josh Winckowski

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