Coming off a breakout 2022 wherein he emerged because the fastest-rising prospect within the Red Sox system, every little thing appeared to be arising Ceddanne Rafaela’s approach getting into spring coaching.
The 22-year-old from Curaçao had been added to the 40-man roster, was enjoying every single day for the large league membership in camp and was even provided an opportunity to play with Team Netherlands within the World Baseball Classic — a possibility he turned down in favor of immersing himself together with his massive league teammates.
It appeared like a no brainer Rafaela would begin the season in Triple-A, however when camp broke he was given the disappointing information that he’d be beginning off again in Double-A, the place he spent the majority of final season.
Why? For all his immense expertise and a aptitude for the highlight-reel play in middle area, the membership felt Rafaela had extra work to do refining his method on 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 advised the Herald earlier this week. “But we sent him there for a reason.”
Hearing that information was undoubtedly disappointing, however for Rafaela the mantra has been easy. It’s not about the place you begin, however the place you end.
“I’m making better (at bats) this year,” Rafaela mentioned Wednesday earlier than Portland’s recreation in opposition to 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 identical ends in Portland as he did a lot of final yr. The Red Sox’ No. 3 prospect is at the moment batting .261 with just one dwelling run by means of 32 video games after hitting 21 final yr, together with 12 over 71 video games at Double-A following his midseason promotion.
But that’s partially a product of the changes Rafaela is making an attempt to include into his recreation. Typically aggressive and free-swinging on the plate, Rafaela had one of many highest chase charges within the Eastern League final season but additionally proved able to driving the ball and doing severe harm when he swung at pitches within the zone. The objective now could be to chop down on the unhealthy swing choices and put collectively higher at-bats.
Brian Abraham, the Red Sox director of participant growth, mentioned they don’t anticipate issues to vary in a single day and perceive there could also be some bumps within the street alongside the way in which.
“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 mentioned. “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 ready to acquire higher mastery of the strike zone, he has the instruments to probably turn into a game-breaker. He is already thought-about a Gold Glove-caliber middle fielder and every time he will get on base he’s able to wreaking havoc.
Just ask the Somerset Patriots, in opposition to whom Rafaela stole 9 bases in two video games final weekend, together with an absurd six final Saturday alone.
“The last couple of years I wanted to steal 30 bases and always fell short,” mentioned Rafaela, who swiped 28 luggage final yr and is already as much as 20 thus far in 2023. “This year (I want) to get 30 bases for sure.”
Abraham mentioned that whereas Rafaela was disillusioned to listen to he’d be beginning in Double-A, he took the information in addition to he may have hoped and has taken the membership’s suggestions to coronary heart. Given that he’s already on the 40-man, Rafaela should still be only one outfield harm within the massive leagues away from making his MLB debut — look no additional than Enmanuel Valdez, Rafaela’s spring coaching working mate who received pressed into responsibility after Christian Arroyo and Yu Chang each received harm.
However lengthy it takes, Rafaela mentioned he’s decided to place within the work and take the following step towards realizing his massive league dream.
“I was hoping to start in Triple-A but I didn’t really think about it that much,” Rafaela mentioned. “It doesn’t matter where I start, it’s where I finish this year.”
MLB warns hitters in opposition to drawing fast pitch violations
Last Saturday St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras took benefit of a quirk in MLB’s new pitch clock guidelines to goad Kenley Jansen right into a pair of fast pitch violations, drawing a stroll to assist the Cardinals mount their eventual comeback win.
Jansen took duty for not understanding the foundations higher, however he additionally advised Contreras received away with gamesmanship. MLB apparently agreed.
According to an Associated Press report, MLB lately despatched a memo to golf equipment warning hitters in opposition to making an attempt to trick pitchers into committing fast pitch violations. The memo basically calls out Contreras for showing able to hit whereas additionally protecting one foot out of the batter’s field and says comparable makes an attempt by gamers sooner or later may lead to a warning, an automated strike or probably even membership self-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, in accordance with the AP.
The new pitch clock guidelines dictate {that a} batter should be alert to the pitcher and have each ft within the batter’s field by the point there may be eight seconds left on the timer, however earlier than that time pitchers should additionally wait till the batter has each ft within the field and is alert earlier than they’ll ship the following pitch.
Going ahead if any comparable incidents as final week’s Jansen-Contreras affair happen, umpires gained’t name a fast pitch violation and an automated ball however will as a substitute difficulty a warning to the batter. Additional makes an attempt may result in an automated strike, and the memo mentioned golf equipment with a number of gamers participating in such conduct can be topic to penalties.
Judge on a tear as soon as extra
Don’t look now, however Aaron Judge is at it once more.
Despite lacking 11 days with a hip pressure in late April and early May, the New York Yankees slugger nonetheless ranks among the many American League leaders in dwelling runs. Entering Saturday Judge was as much as 13 on the season, together with seven in his final seven video games getting into Saturday.
Judge is at the moment one behind Texas’ Adolis Garcia (14) for the AL lead and is tied for second with Rafael Devers (13), this even if he’s solely performed 36 video games in comparison with Garcia’s 43 and Devers’ 44.
Devers, who had led the AL in homers for a lot of the season, was mired in a little bit of an influence outage the previous few weeks. Heading into Friday Devers solely had one dwelling run within the month of May, a grand slam again on May 4 in opposition to Toronto, and adopted that up with a 12-game drought. He broke out in a giant approach in opposition to San Diego although, going deep twice in Boston’s 6-1 win.
Vasil dominating Double-A
Wellesley’s Mike Vasil, a former BC High and University of Virginia star, has gotten off to an incredible begin since being promoted to Double-A to begin the season.
Through his first seven begins the New York Mets prospect is 1-1 with a 2.19 ERA and a exceptional 46 strikeouts in opposition to simply 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 additionally ranks first within the league in stroll fee (4.3%) and second in strikeout fee (33.3%), first in opponent’s batting common (.153) and first in batting common on balls in play (.198).
The solely different pitcher within the Eastern League with remotely comparable numbers was Red Sox prospect Shane Drohan, who unsurprisingly was simply promoted to Triple-A and made his Worcester Red Sox debut on Thursday. Drohan had a 1.32 ERA over his first six begins in Portland however met a impolite welcome in Worcester, the place he allowed 5 runs on three walks and three dwelling runs but additionally struck out six over 5 innings of labor.
Send us your mailbag questions!
With the season approaching the two-month mark we’ve seen sufficient to have a good thought of the place the Red Sox and everybody else stands. That being the case, now appears like pretty much as good a time as any to take some reader questions for an upcoming Red Sox mailbag.
Please submit your Red Sox associated inquiries to [email protected] or by Twitter direct message at @MacCerullo. We’ll look to reply as many as we will in subsequent Sunday’s MLB column.
Source: www.bostonherald.com