Ceddanne

Rafaela

There has been some steady progress in the underlying metrics for Rafaela this season. He’s chasing less outside of the zone and making more contact, but the impactful swings have not been there, so it was nice to see this game from him today. He took Framber Valdez deep in the first inning for his second home run of the year and then added an RBI single in the third inning as well. He’s getting caught stealing too much to begin the season, but new Red Sox manager Chad Tracy has been hitting Rafaela near the middle of the lineup, so that should be a real boon to his counting stats. He remains a hold in all fantasy formats.

Rafaela’s triple came in the sixth inning, hit to the right-center gap and scoring Wilyer Abreu to give Boston a 4-1 lead. The 25-year-old is hitting for a career-best wRC+, but he’s 0-for-3 on stolen base attempts with just one homer so far.

Rafaela has started 11 of the last 12 games for the Red Sox, so this is a routine day off. Boston didn’t do anything in the off-season to solve their outfield logjam, and now they also have Masataka Yoshida hitting .300/.462/.400 in his first 39 plate appearances, which makes it hard for Alex Cora to get everybody into the lineup. Yoshida will DH on Monday with Jarren Duran in centerfield. Rafaela is having a solid start to the season, hitting .279/.362/.377 with one home run and a 39 percent hard-hit rate, but he’s hitting the ball in the air less and hasn’t yet stolen a base, so the fantasy goodness has not followed so far.

Rafaela takes a seat following seven consecutive starts in center field with righty Mick Abel toeing the rubber for Minnesota. It’ll be Jarren Duran taking over in center field. The 25-year-old speedster is hitting .318 (7-for-22) over his last seven games.

If it wasn’t for Wilyer Abreu, Rafaela would be far and away the Red Sox’s best hitter so far this season. He’s batting .325/.386/.425 with five RBI now on the season. He hits at the bottom of the Red Sox order, so the counting stats won’t be great, but he has 20/20 upside with the potential to hit .260 or higher. He swings a ton, so there will be some cold streaks throughout the season, but you should try to weather them.

He would have had an easy steal in the eighth, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa swung and fouled the pitch off. Kiner-Falefa went on to pop up the next pitch between first and second, but it dropped in on a windy day. Unfortunately, that still left Rafaela as a dead duck at second, as opposed to both being safe if the force play had been off. Rafaela is up to .324/.378/.412 in 37 plate appearances, which seems extra important with the Red Sox constantly trying to squeeze Masataka Yoshida into the lineup.

Rafaela has started nearly every game this season, so he’ll get a well-deserved rest in this one. Masataka Yoshida will start in left field and bat sixth for the Red Sox while Jarren Duran slides over to cover center.

Rafaela’s home run, his third of the spring, was 98.6 mph off the bar and traveled 360 feet. He also added a 98.2 mph single and is hitting .394/.447/.788 this spring. He has ten strikeouts to just three walks in 38 plate appearances, but he continues to make hard contact and flash potential 20/20 upside while being an everyday player due to his elite centerfield defense. Considering he is also second base eligible in fantasy leagues, he’s an intriguing target outside of the top 100 picks.

The Netherlands won both of their exhibitions against MLB teams, with Rafaela acting as a driving force; he has two homers and two doubles the last two days. The team’s other standout today was Didi Gregorius, who went 3-for-3 with a double and two RBI.

All four of Rafaela’s balls in play today were hit at least 98 mph, and he reached on an error in his first at-bat. Rafaela was also off to a fast start in Red Sox camp, having gone 5-for-13 with two homers and two doubles before leaving the team. Hopefully, he’s in line for another little step forward offensively in his age-25 season.