No WBC for top prospect Rafaela
Interesting discovery made at Fenway Park
Top prospect Ceddanne Rafaela isn’t on Team Netherlands’ World Baseball Classic roster after all.
The Curaçao native was a neverending highlight reel with High-Greenville and Double-A Portland in 2022, so much so that Portland manager Chad Epperson told reporters the young prospect is a better defender than Mookie Betts had been at the same point in his professional career. At the end of the season, Rafaela was named Red Sox Defensive Player of the Year.
Rafaela cracked the preseason Top 100 at Baseball America (No. 71), Baseball Prospectus (No. 73) and MLB (No. 86). Within the organization, he’s now the No. 3 prospect, behind Marcelo Mayer and Triston Casas, who will be out of rookie eligibility in no time; after impressing in his brief September debut, Casas is expected to be the starting first baseman for the big league team.
The Red Sox added Rafaela to the 40-man roster in November, protecting him from the Rule 5 Draft. This will be his first spring training at major league camp, and there’s been discussion of him starting the year in Triple-A Worcester. Sources tell the Herald that Rafaela’s plate discipline is the only thing truly holding him back from the penultimate level. While he led the organization’s qualified hitters with a .299 average and 144 hits — including 32 doubles, 10 triples, and 21 home runs — he also struck out 113 times and stole more bases (28) than he drew walks (26) in 116 games.
Rafaela spent a portion of the offseason playing for Criollos de Caguas, Alex Cora’s hometown team from the Puerto Rican Winter League. Over 76 plate appearances, he drew nine walks for an 11.8% rate, an improvement over his meager 5% rate during the 2022 MiLB season.
With Kiké Hernández and Adam Duvall both under contract for one year, and Jarren Duran’s future uncertain, Rafaela could very well be Boston’s center fielder of the future, so the Red Sox aren’t going to rush his development.
Members of the Red Sox organization participating in the WBC: Jorge Alfaro, Richard Bleier, Rafael Devers, Duran, Ian Gibaut, Rio Gomez, Norwith Gudino, Hernández, Nick Pivetta, Henry Ramos, Alex Verdugo and Masataka Yoshida.
Older than Fenway
Compared to its compatriots, Fenway is a dinosaur.
‘America’s Most Beloved Ballpark’ first opened its doors in April 1912, the same week the Titanic sunk. Wrigley Field, the National League’s oldest ballpark, first opened in 1914, and became the home of the Chicago Cubs in 1916. No other MLB ballpark in use today is older than 1962; Oriole Park at Camden Yards is now MLB’s 10th oldest ballpark, and it opened in 1992.
When current ownership purchased the Red Sox in 2002, they rescued Fenway from demolition, sinking hundreds of millions into refurbishing and renovating the crown jewel of Boston’s Emerald Necklace.
The Red Sox completely renovated the field and drainage system in 2004, so senior director of grounds Dave Mellor was shocked to unearth a glass bottle this week. He shared a series of photos to his Instagram account, which he uses to document various Fenway projects, including the installation of new, energy-efficient light bulbs that will illuminate
night games this year.
Mellor noted the “interesting rounded bottom and cool bubbles,” and showed the piece of cork still lodged in the top.
Cork tops date back to the 18th century, but True Legacy Homes specifies that the blob shape of the bottle lip is a style that was used between 184070. While it’s unclear exactly how old the bottle is, the existence of bubbles in the glass suggests the bottle predates 1920. Red Sox
spokesperson Zineb Curran told the Boston Globe that this model was last produced in 1910.
It’s not only a fascinating discovery, but a potentially lucrative one; antique bottles in good condition can fetch thousands of dollars. One man in New Zealand has a collection valued at over $80,000.
Big spenders
Fans may not agree with how Red Sox ownership spends money, but there’s
no denying they spend. Since purchasing the team for a then-record $660 million, which was more than double the price paid for any MLB team at the time, Fenway Sports Group has sunk billions into the ballpark and players.
According to Red Sox Payroll (not affiliated with the team), the Red Sox have gone over the luxury tax threshold 11 times in the 21 seasons since the threshold was first implemented in the 2002 Collective Bargaining
Agreement; only the Yankees have more taxpaying seasons (17), and the two rivals are the only two clubs with double-digit seasons in excess. To date, only 12 clubs have ever paid the penalty.
Currently, the payroll sits at $225 million, giving the Red Sox a bit of breathing room under this year’s $233 million threshold. Staying under this year would enable the franchise to reset, as they were over the threshold in 2022.