Monday Morning Brushback: One For The Future

The Red Sox week in review dives into Ceddanne Rafaela, recent roster moves, and Roman Anthony’s jump up the prospect hierarchy.

Much like a cockroach or a Twinkie following a nuclear blast, the 2024 Red Sox just don’t seem to go away.

This past week started off poorly as poorly as possible. Three ugly losses at the hands of the New York Mets left a sour taste in our mouths as the club fell back to the .500 mark for the first time in months. A 10-game cushion above the Even-Stevens line at the All-Star break, gone just like… that.

So, of course, because this team will refuse to disappear, they take a weekend home series from the single worst team that we have ever seen. We won the season series against the 2024 Chicago White Sox, folks! Pop the champagne! Cue the duck boats! Except, and this is true: Getting rocked on Sunday did not help much. Thank Smiley for Jarod Mayo.

Facetious comments aside, you’ve gotta beat whoever’s in front of you. It’s nice that they were able to take the set this weekend and still give themselves an outside shot of making a run at this thing.

And yet, doesn’t that context make this second half even more frustrating? The Red Sox are still alive, to whatever extent, but they could’ve been thriving. This would merely have required they had only shot themselves in the feet one dozen times, instead of two or three times that number. since mid-July. These are the margins between playoff contention and saying “shoulda, woulda, coulda.” From bullpen woes, to the bat going quiet, to the stuff happening on the field, to the things occurring in the front office, and to everything in between, the dilemma currently facing the team has is of their own doing. Reaping, sowing, etc.

Victories against cupcake teams like the Pale Hose could’ve been reinforcing for a team prepping to take a shot in October instead of a refuge amid the tsunami of suck we’ve gone through in recent weeks. If the Sox took care of business in any of those frustrating sets post-ASG—not dropping winnable games against the Dodgers out west, properly dealing with a rudderless Toronto team at home, dealer’s choice as to which example you want to insert here—we’d be singing a much happier tune heading into some key divisional games. And if my aunt had wheels, she’d be a bicycle.

We’re at the stage of taking and wins where we can get ‘em. Maybe they can surprise us against the top two teams in the AL East, which could help set up one hell of a series against Minnesota at Fenway. Either that or I get to spend more time thinking about my fantasy football team.

It’s Monday Morning Brushback time, y’all.

Hey What’s Up Hello to Ceddy Wap

Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images

Say what you want about Ceddanne Rafaela, but he has displayed a knack for stepping up when it really matters. We saw as much in early July at Yankee Stadium, and we saw it again during a Fenway Friday this past week. His two-run jimmy jack in the seventh was enough to push Boston ahead for good.

When Ceddy’s on an off-night, there really isn’t much to say about his performance at the plate other than pointing out the fact that it will be a relatively quick AB, over in three pitches. When he’s cooking, though, it’s an absolute delight. Anyone who enjoys this game should realize how fun a guy like Rafaela is to watch when he’s firing on all cylinders.

My question to you, dear reader: considering the contact that Rafaela signed in April—eight years for $50 million with a club option for 2032—are you fine with his 2024 season? If this is the type of performance that we can expect (with the added expectation that some things can develop here and there with time), would you take that?

At just 23 years of age, Ceddy’s demonstrated 20/20 potential, and while that’s nothing to sneeze at, his 26% strikeout rate and unholy 2.9% walk rate (23rd and *gags* 1st percentile, according to Savant) are. There have been some hiccups defensively at short, but I wouldn’t expect him to play there full-time, now that Trevor Story is back. We all know how much of a defensive wizard he is in center, and while a .684 OPS and 87 OPS+ isn’t setting the world on fire, he’s just 23 and there have been obvious flashes of brilliance this year.

If this is the foundation for what we see throughout the life of his contract, I’m fine with that. Stellar defense, utility man capacity, some pop, with the potential to grow into a better hitter? Sign me up for that, especially if it’s below $7 million.

Of course expectations are gonna skyrocket for a guy who puts pen to paper on an eight-figure deal as a youngster; just ask Brayan Bello. But I’d be hard pressed to call 2024 anything but a solid jumping-off point for Ceddy. Don’t kill us on offense, save our bacon on defense—that’s what I need from him going forward, and I think he can deliver.

Dalbec At His Fitts End

Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images

Hello Richard Fitts, farewell Bobby Dalbec.

Amid the turnover in the Red Sox’s pitching staff, the righty Fitts was called up to carry some of the load for Sunday’s finale against Chicago and was fantastic, going 5.2 innings and allowing 2 runs, neither of them earned.

Fitts’s profile is certainly interesting. Ranked as the club’s 15th best prospect according to Baseball America and 13th per Pipeline, we’re talking about a pretty big drink of water with a fastball that has some nice movement to compliment a slider and changeup. The 55-grade control (“That’s good”) doesn’t hurt, either.

Not bad for being a part of a trade package that came at the expense of an outfielder on a contract year who will be lucky to finish with a .675 OPS?

But with Fitts coming up, room had to be made on Boston’s 40-man roster. As my good friend Thanos once said: a soul for a soul.

That soul was Bobby Dalbec, who was designated for assignment prior to the game on Sunday.

Not much I have to say here, really. Bobby Dalbec was, undoubtedly, one of the Red Sox players of all-time. Out of all of the players who have put on a Red Sox uniform, he was surely one of them.

I hope Bobby D lands on his feet in some organization, but it wasn’t going to be here. The strikeouts were getting out of hand, raw power be damned. That COVID year and that August 2021 stretch he had alongside Hunter Renfroe were special.

Rome Continues to be Built

Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images

Your regular reminder to remain hopeful for the future of this organization: outfielder Roman Anthony has moved up to number two (2) in the aforementioned Baseball America rankings!

Anthony leads the way for Boston, as Marcelo Mayer, Kristian Campbell, Kyle Teel, Braden Montgomery, and Franklin Arias were also able to crack the top 100 as well. It’s a testament to the belief that I share about the future of this team—a belief that I’m sure I’m not alone in holding, even as frustrating as this recent stretch has been.

I truly don’t know what the front office does with the outfield situation starting this winter. It’s not a bad problem to have, but hard choices may be looming. I don’t know how you can trade a guy like Jarren Duran after the year he’s had. I’m high on Wilyer Abreu, and I can’t see him being moved. How do you trade a prospect like Roman Anthony based on his progression? How do you justify being flush with outfield talent across the entire system while other aspects of the big club (pitching) aren’t quite up to a championship pedigree? How do you justify trading any of these guys if you aren’t getting proper value in return?

I don’t know the answer to those questions; I’m just happy that we’re in a spot where we can ask them. Brighter days are ahead—I know you’re probably sick of hearing that, but I do believe that, regardless of who’s staying and who’s going. Roman Anthony is a major reason for that optimism.

Song of the Week: “Jesus of Suburbia” by Green Day

Spotify did a very rude thing to me as I was trying to think of a song for the end of this week’s article. I open the app up, and right on the front page was a new Green Day EP, showcasing some demos/live performances/B-sides from American Idiot in honor of the albums 20th anniversary.

The album’s………….twentieth…………..anniversary.

After sobbing uncontrollably for an hour because the brutal march of time is unrelenting and because I feel old as FUCK now, I decided to go with the best song on the album. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m probably gonna listen to the entire thing.

Same time and same place next week, folks! Go Sox.