#red-sox-outfielders

#red-sox-outfielders

I think it was good. Came up, obviously a young guy, didn't really know what to expect. Obviously struggled at the start. Being in a new clubhouse, being around guys who had show time, kind of everything, playing against better competition. I think just getting up here, getting my feet wet, it made the transition coming into this year super easy, just because I'm pretty comfortable.

Jack Anderson fell into a 4-0 deficit in the third inning via a grand slam that put St. Paul's win expectation at 88%, but the bullpen gave the team the opportunity to catch up.

Ok, this isn't quite true. But Ceddanne Rafaela is not only the best center fielder on the Red Sox but in all of baseball. Gold Glove defense, walkoff hits. Playing with intensity. He does it all. In 2025 he had his breakout - with some qualifiers. At the plate he hit .249./295/.414 with 16 home runs and 20 stolen bases overall. Of course the season looked pretty different depending on when you were tuning in.

And yet, most defensive metrics don't think the Sox are that bad, and some think they are elite. By Statcast's Fielding Run Value as presented by Baseball Savant, the Red Sox had the fifth-best defense in baseball last year. By Statcast's Fielding Run Value as presented by FanGraphs (which is apparently a slightly different thing, though I couldn't tell you how) they were the seventh-best.