TedYazPapiMookie

Once again, you missed the point of the comments so you can rant about theories you believe to be true but aren't. The comment was about support not performance. That's precisely why I continue to ask you not to comment on my posts. Also, the writer appears to be as off topic as you since he gave you a thumbs up, very much the mob mentality I've discussed in the past. FYI.... your AAA report was completely bogus. I follow him daily and watch video so keep your bogus data to yourself. If you understood the game better, you would know that players go on hot streaks and cold streaks, and his 2025 season has seen him go hot early in his MLB career unlike the other prospects then when he struggled the reaction by the big club led by the idiot manager was to simply dump him. Did they bat him third when things were going badly? Nope. Thats the treatment reserved for Anthony and despite his humiliating numbers Anthony rebounded because they had his back. I'm not sure Mayer ever had much of a hot streak this year but for a short while he hit a few home runs but as usual he got hurt. They carried him while his average and overall performance was less than Campbell's. Why? Because they have his back. Mayer should have been sent down when he had failed as long as Campbell did, but they kept him in the majors because once again, they have his back. This should be very clear to any knowledgeable baseball fan that there is a double standard in the organization that's been there since Henry bought the club. When Swihart is the golden boy not Mookie, you know there are issues. When Mayer is preferred over Campbell, you know there are issues. It's just that simple. You rationalizing the team's behavior doesn't make the obvious not true, it simply speaks to your loyalties not your baseball knowledge. Like I've stated before, trade the kid so he can rebuild his confidence with an organization that appreciates him. Maybe trade him to Milwaukee like Priester so he has the support of the organization. He sure as heck has no support right now from BOSTON'S MLB manager, the front office or the poorly informed segment of the fan base (the segment that makes ridiculous comments about him being a utility player and he has no position). Give the kid a break and trade him so he can develop into the all-star that showed his elite skills in 2024 and every year before that!!!

He was sent down hitting .223 on June 20th while hitting at the bottom of the order while Anthony hit 3rd in the line-up while hitting under .100. Being treated equally? I don't see it. By the all-star break the team was doing better and he was hitting again and guys like Hamilton, Sogard and others were brought up, so he has missed out on the experience of being in a pennant race. Did the other guys need the experience when they won't be on the team in a year or two? NOPE. The kid was Minor League Player of the Year, an honor a guy like Hamilton or Sogard would never have the skill to earn. So why keep him down so long after he made his adjustments? Lack of respect. I don't' take issue with him being sent down I take issue with him staying down to learn positions that they went out and filled at the MLB level. The whole season has been a waste of time for him. That's why I say trade him for his sake. Based on his performance prior to this season, Campbell never struggled like Mayer did in the minors. Only Anthony and Campbell were pretty much studs their whole career. Anthony struggled for the first time at the start of his call-up but was completely supported and Campbell proved he belonged for the first month and then struggled for the first time. Now the entire fan base is down him just like Duran two years ago and Rafaela last year. It's a horrible way to run an organization. Respect for his achievements prior to this season should have been greater than both Anthony and Mayer since he out performed them in 2024. The initial promotion had NOTHING to do with respect, it was about where the hole in the line-up was. Anthony had Duran, Rafaela and Abreu in front of him. Mayer had Story in front of him and Campbell had nobody blocking him so he got the call-up. Your comment about that being respectful isn't true. It was all about the roster not respect.

My point is - Campbell being treated like crap by Cora means his future will be maximized if he is traded so he can find a place where the fan base is fair to him and the manager has a clue about baseball. This young exciting SS who was asked to learn 2B, then outfield (2 positions) then 1B after winning the Minor League Player of the Year award has been completely disrespected and we all know once that happens in Boston, they are going to want to leave like Mookie did. Trade him now and let him find a team that loves him like LAD fans, front office and ownership love Mookie. The kid deserves better. He should have gotten the Anthony/Mayer treatment instead he's not even getting the treatment of slugs like Hamilton, Wong. Abreu and Sogard. Trade him because he will be shown far more respect than BOS gives him and that means more trade value than expected by the BOS haters.

Haters and haters. Funny how some guys get support from certain writers and others don't. Trashing Campbell is ridiculous, but this inexperienced writer and baseball fan continues to miss the mark on certain players. So, take his comments with a grain of salt. The team is going so well, and this writer keeps choosing to be negative about specific players he has a bias against. Here's is a suggestion, write another fluff story about Abreu, Hamilton or maybe Mayer and stop picking on Duran, Rafaela and Campbell, especially in the middle of a pennant race!!!

Slumps happen and then they end, and players return to normal. If there is no underlying injury at the center of his slump, it will simply be a matter of time before he comes out of it. He has had slumps every season of his career and this season has been so exceptional that it's not surprising that he's finally having one. Let's hope it ends soon, or we know Cora will do something irrational and it will impact the team's chances of winning.

Ryan is a nice pitcher. He's not all-star material unless he's playing for a bad franchise and he's clearly not elite with his numbers so why waste prospects on him? The team now has Crochet, Tolle, Giolito and Bello who are all looking better than the 29-year-old Ryan. Is he better than May? Probably but May might start improving working with the Breslow staff of pitching coaches. Also, they have both Houck and Kutter coming back under control as potential #5 SPs not to mention the upside potential of Witherspoon and other recent farm hands that have been added in the last two years. The pitching is now deep enough to withstand injuries unlike in the past. That's all a credit to Breslow. Also, Miami has many young stars that might be cheaper so let Breslow's group analyze their potential before considering slightly above average pitchers like Ryan.

With Cora still the manager setting the illogical line-ups and subbing the wrong pitchers regularly, it's hard to be optimistic. There are 3 teams that are close enough to easily knock the Red Sox from the playoff picture so NOTHING is a given at this point. Boston has been streaky all season and seem to beat the better teams and lose to the lesser teams. The schedule theoretically includes just one "weak" team the As but they have upset many this year. The Yankees have lost to Boston like they have often done in recent years early in the season and they have gotten beaten by the Yankees late in the season so expected the dominance to continue with Judge out of his funk seems unlikely. Finishing with the Rays is good because they have fallen off, the Blue Jays is rough since they have owned us this year and the Tigers who will match Skubal versus Crochet making it a very, very tough match-up. The good news is if they may have clinched and they won't care about matchups; they will be focused on setting their rotation for the post-season. As we all have seen, losing Devers was HUGE. Bregman's made more great plays at 3B than Devers did in 8 seasons and has prevented so many runs by killing rallies that would have happened with Devers at 3B. As MVP of the team, we desperately need Bregman to come out of his slump and we need Cora to wake up and smell the coffee by playing the starters more often and by putting Anthony in LF, Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF with Yoshida at DH. Bregman, Story and Lowe are locks in the infield and playing musical chairs with the scrubs at 2B is fine if Cora has an overwhelming need to play everyone more than they should. We shouldn't expect much from the catchers so they should be batting at the bottom of the order. Playing everyone in their best team defensive position should also help the players get comfortable hitting down the stretch. Injuries will be key to the success of the team in the final month. The pitching needs to hold up in September and the team needs to keep scoring for Crochet and Giolito. Let's hope things work out but the range of potential standings is extremely varied. This team could win anywhere from 85 to 95 games. I believe the last WC spot will have at least 87 wins.

Great job Breslow!!!

Brandon, thanks for the background piece it goes a long way to explaining the perspectives of the very junior staff of writers. I've struggled to understand why so many articles are presented that don't really have a significant topic. As writers learning their art, these youngsters now make much more sense to me and as such I realized how much they don't yet know and why they get offended when someone points it out. Since the 90s I've dedicated much of my post playing time to teaching young players the game and for me I could tell which players took the game seriously and respected it and those who simply had talent and wanted recognition. I'm not sure this site is a good one for me because it's less about baseball and the history of the game and more like a fraternity with hazing, cyber bullying and alpha males who have no idea what they don't know about the game. I've enjoyed your articles, and I will keep an eye out for your articles to read. Good luck and congrats on the one year success.

Like metrics, your estimate of Cora's decision is pure speculation.

I agree being in the MLB would be good for him. Having played at many different levels I have some insight into what it's like when things are going well with a coach who supports you and when things don't go as well playing for a coach who doesn't support you. I believe Cora is a source of a lot of stress for several of the prospects and has been since he arrived. My earliest example dates back to when Mookie was his inherited superstar in 2018 and how he chose to rest him far more than he wanted to, just like JD Martinez. Cora took a very mediocre player who Dombrowski signed mid-season named Steve Pearce and injected him into JD's number 3 hole. It was obvious immediately that it impacted JD's rituals and confidence. There was no need for it but the first week he did it against the NYY Pearce came up in many situations that JD had been excelling in throughout the summer and got the glory for beating the Yankees during a single series. JD was hitting .330 with power and a ton of doubles and Pearce was no better than a journeyman with an unsensational career. Cora impacted a veteran's psyche with his move and Mookie pulled away and won the MVP. The following season BOS opened in Asia and then went on a long West Coast trip after they won the WS the previous year. Cora told the pitchers to show up 2 weeks later than usual for Spring Training because they pitched into November. It was a ridiculous idea but typical of an inexperienced manager. Then to add further stress in the ranks, for no logical reason, Cora started Benny as the leadoff hitter and moved Mookie to the 2-hole. As usual, it made no sense but Cora likes to experiment so he can take credit, and it backfired like most of his moves. After several games they switched back to try to stop the tremendous skid the team was going through. The SPs were all struggling, especially Sale and Price due to the short Spring Training. Eovaldi got hurt and the starters were NOT ready to go more than 5 innings, so the bullpen got worn out in April. You could see the pitcher's stress due to the lack of preparation, the star players stress from the lack of performance due to the Cora change and the fan frustration for all the managerial mistakes. Fast forward to Duran arriving in the MLB and being rewarded with hitting lead-off initially. He played really well and suddenly he got jerked from the lead-off spot for no apparent reason and Duran's psyche was impacted as he admitted in the Netflix story about the Red Sox. It took him over a year to return to the MLB after being completely deflated by Cora's actions. Enter Rafaela the next year. He goes down nearly an identical path to Duran's. He makes the MLB and bats lead-off and does well and out of the clear blue gets moved to 7th in the order and has NEVER been returned to where he was most comfortable hitting. Add to it the fact that Cora treated him more like a utility player like he did Duran rather than a top prospect. Once again there is failure prompted by the actions of the manager for a second year in a row. Rafaela is still waiting to be treated with respect from Cora but at least the fans are showing to him for the most part thanks to all his dramatic catches. Now it's Campbell's turn to receive the Cora three-peat. Campbell hit better than both Duran and Rafaela to begin his career after winning Minor League Player of the Year. He carried a .400 average for a couple of weeks and finished the first month over .300 and batting in the top of the order. Then, Cora pulls a Cora (synonymous with mistake in our house). He once again moves Campbell this time down to the bottom of the order and the wheels fall off with respect to his hitting and he's being pushed aside from his recently learned 2B position so he can learn 1B. (Utility player like the other two) So how much does the support of your manager matter? Anthony while batting below .100 hit in the third spot in the order, a massive sign of support from Cora. Even Mayer got to stay in a better part of the order while he was severely struggling. But Duran, Rafaela and now Chapman didn't have that support and went down almost identical trails. I fully expect Campbell to bounce back like Duran and have success and maybe make the all-star team in a year. Rafaela is all-ready an all-star who should be batting in the top of the order and be receiving the Anthony type team support that I'm sure he'll never receive until Cora is gone. The moral of the story is finding a manager who is unbiased in his treatment of prospects and players and having him provide support to all his players not just a select few needs to be the goal of the Red Sox, especially Breslow. Campbell can make it back just like Duran and Rafaela did, but wouldn't it be nice if he finally got the respect from his MLB manager for all he has accomplished in the Red Sox organization in just two short seasons?

Brandon, it will be fun to revisit this information at the end of the season. There are so many factors that go into the success of a player at the plate it's often hard to isolate one that is a guaranteed method for success. For first pitch success, one philosophy is to build a tunnel for where you are expecting to see the ball and decide which type of pitch you are going to hunt in that tunnel. When you see numbers like Anthony's it sure seems like he's using this fairly common approach during each at bat. So why did he fail so badly at the start of the season. I believe his timing was off and he had to make adjustments to slow the game down but to continue to stick to his approach in each count. Once the timing got corrected, he started contacting the first pitch like he did his whole career. Whoever worked with him to define a hitting philosophy created guidelines for what to do in each count and all he has to do is effectively execute it. Sometimes the pitcher makes an exceptional pitch, and you fail, sometimes he guesses correctly, and his athleticism launches a rocket shot and sometimes the philosophy allows him to adjust, make contacts and possibly get a hit despite being fooled. Once he establishes his pattern, the book on him will grow and he'll need to adjust to how the other teams plan on getting him out. We saw Campbell have great success like Anthony is having now and then we saw the book on him eat him up. Whatever his process is to make adjustments, the success of it will define the amount of continued success he'll have. Will he be a consistent hitter like Mookie, a streaky hitter like Devers, a process driven hitter like JD Martinez? Anthony hasn't played enough to know what his future holds but we all can see he's very talented like Campbell, Rafaela and Duran. Let's hope Campbell has gotten some help identifying what the opponents found in his hitting and has made the appropriate adjustments to correct the issue or issues. BOS could use his bat and defense as we approach Sept and the playoffs. Excellent article.

Anthony has a beautiful swing like Griffey did but now that he's gotten past his initial hitting failure, we need to see what happens the next time he struggles and has some adversity at hitting. That's when the coaches start tinkering and let's hope they don't with Anthony. Bregman's swing isn't as rounded Anthony's swing so any coincidental alignment in performance stats for a guy who has played 60 games isn't really relevant. The sample size is too small. The swing doesn't look similar. Not much to agree with in the article.

I've heard of teams who consider the third catcher to be what you described but I've not heard of any team using anything but a full-time catcher as the back-up. Since catchers usually get a game off each week the #2 catcher gets to play more than the other reserves usually do. Cora is the exception. He completely over plays the 4 players on the bench because he identifies with them since he was a bench guy during his career. Some teams have super utility guys that can play outfield and infield which allows them to keep a platoon hitter on the roster. TB always comes to mind when I think of a team with a philosophy of having lots of interchangeable players and that lends itself to a platoon guy as well. If you go into Abreu's stats on Baseball Reference and choose SPLITS CAREER you'll see how incredibly bad, he is against LH pitchers, how incredibly inconsistent his performance has been month by month during the six-month season. He gets hot and cold for long periods which is great when he's hot but kills the team when he goes into his prolonged slumps. Lastly with regard to Abreu he gets the YIPS when he runs toward the fence at full speed but none of that downside is taken into account by the modern defensive metrics. Harper as a young player had his hair on fire and crashed into the outfield fences all the time because he was an extremely competitive player like we have discussed. You won't catch Abreu putting that level of effort into a play, but you will see both Rafaela and Duran make that level of effort. So, for me, I will never accept modern defensive metrics because they don't reflect level of effort because they don't measure heart, just distance to the ball, route run and the appalling fact is that catching the ball is NOT the primary factor in the bogus DRS calculations. Until someone figures out how to properly evaluate defensive metrics, I'm sticking with the single most critical factor - Did they catch the ball. A player with the YIPS can win a gold glove and the player who NEVER misses a ball is passed over by a faulty measurement system. That's why I consider Abreu as the weakest defensive outfielder on the team. Nobody is giving great weight to HEART, just distance with the metrics and catching the ball isn't the highest priority. If you want to confirm my issues with Abreu, go to the video on balls hit over his head where he turns counterclockwise and runs fast toward the fence in right field. You'll notice he struggles to catch those balls because his technique is wrong when he reaches out to his left. He temporarily loses sight of the ball because his right arm passes between his eyes and the ball, so he loses sight of the ball as it approaches his glove causing him to reach to the wrong spot and miss the ball. Often, the catch is considered difficult so the score keeper chooses to not give him an error on a ball he should have caught. He still leads all outfielders in errors usually, but it would be worse if scorekeepers had a clue about WHY he's missing routine balls. If I had a choice among Rafaela, Duran, Anthony, Abreu, Refsnyder and Garcia, I would choose in order, Anthony for his hitting, Rafaela and Duran for their all around contributions, Refsnyder for his ability to hit RH and LH batters equally, Garcia because he doesn't have Abreu's weakness for a specific type of pitcher and then Abreu due to his inability to hit LH pitchers and his YIPS. I want a player with heart.

I love Duran's spirit too. I agree that a platoon can be effective but with Duran, Rafaela and Anthony all superior to the platoon there aren't enough spots to use a platoon, and the added power is being compared to several young players who will develop more power including Anthony, Rafaela and Campbell. If you can solve the issue with using 2 hitting spots for one position, then Abreu becomes more tolerable, but the 13 spots as a given the platoon option is not in the best interest of the team. The team needs a reserve catcher, CI, MI and OF. By changing that to a catcher, 2 OFers, and 1 IF your run a much higher in game risk for injuries. Again, love the high intensity of Duran and agree that we need that.

Agreed. There is no urgent need at this time to move Abreu because his price is low, and he should be providing depth not starting. The problem mounts if Garcia turns out to be better than expected because the 13-hitter portion of the 26-man roster leaves room for 3 outfielders starting and 1 in reserve. Abreu already creates an issue because he is no good versus LH pitchers so he's the equivalent of a half a player which means you need a Refsnyder to offset him pushing the outfield total to 5 which shortchanges your infield and catcher reserves. With only 4 total non-starters and one needing to be a catcher that leaves 1 spot for corner infield reserve, one spot for middle infield reserve and one spot for outfield reserve. With Abreu platooning forcing Refsnyder to couple with him that leaves just 2 spots to handle back-up catcher and back-up CI and MI. The team is forced to be exposed with Abreu on the roster because he can't hit lefties. This is why I have been harping on moving Abreu not the better player Duran, it allows for more depth in reserve in the infield where injuries tend to happen more often. These are all things the front office and Cora should be considering. Instead, like they did with Devers, they are focusing on what's good for just one guy, Abreu. The team defense improves with Rafaela in RF and Duran in CF and Anthony in LF AND they offense is better as well. This should be a no brainer. Platoon players have been parts of 13 hitter rosters in the past but teams like TB used coupled players that could bridge the gap between backing up the infield and outfield. That's why it worked for them but won't work for BOS. Abreu's qualified positions don't include the infield.

Brandon, entertaining article. It should be fun to see if the Password can start out on fire like Campbell did. Roman took quite a while to adjust so if the Password's path resembles his then the season will be over before things click. Let's hope he doesn't resemble Mayer who never clicked his season. I was surprised you put Duran behind the platoon hitting Abreu. All Cora has to do is put Rafaela in RF and Duran in CF and BOS would never have to worry about forcing a square peg in a round hole with Abreu. He can be trade bait; he can DH despite Yoshida being the better all-around hitter or he can be a late inning bat which best fits his skill set. There is a valid reason Duran would bring more in a trade; he's the far more complete player with many skills Abreu doesn't have. Abreu is a sold defender with a good arm that can't hit lefties. Duran is an exceptionally fast defender who can cover more ground than Abreu, bat leadoff to set the table for the offense and is a much better hitter that steals bases. It makes sense he would get more in a trade, but the important question is "Who in their right mind trades a top player to get better?" That's the type of logic that sent Mookie to LAD, Priester to MIL, Sale to ATL. Abreu needs to go to stop Cora from making daily mistakes with his line-up card.

Rooting for a .178 hitter to get the bat going again begs the question, when was it ever going? He plays thanks to Cora. He's never earned a minute of playing time. He's a base stealer who gets picked off due to a short attention span. He can't steal first base, so he belongs in the minors his whole career. Rafaela Duran and Anthony should be playing RF, CF and LF respectively. Cora needs to bring placeholders to the ballpark like he did in the old days when Devers. He basically set up human "orange cones" around 3B when Devers couldn't play so everyone knew it was his spot despite Devers' complete inability to play it. Dalbec wasn't allowed to play 3B despite being second on the depth chart, Cora used slugs so nobody would see what good baseball fans saw, Devers couldn't handle defense at 3B. Now Mayer has the same deal going with Cora, so he continues to put out his human "orange cones" in an attempt to reserve the injury prone Mayer a spot in the infield. Hamilton hitting .178, Toto hitting .171 in the second half, Gonzalez hitting .233 in the second half, they are all orange cones ensuring nobody better than Mayer plays 2B. Heck, I expect Cora to use Sogard who has played 8 games at 2B to be in the mix or Eaton who hasn't played there at all. This behavior perfectly mimics what he did for Devers. Think about how many wins that cost Boston over the years!!! Why would Cora do this? The answer is obvious. To keep Campbell from returning and getting hot like he was before Cora dropped him in the order. Cora would risk eliminating Mayer's current future spot in 2026 if Campbell flourishes like he did in 2024. Campbell has been a fly in the ointment for the Red Sox manager. Campbell came out of nowhere to be a better prospect than Mayer and now he has to deal with how he can treat him to create setbacks like he did for Duran and Rafaela in past years. Thus, Cora is setting up human orange cones at 2B with ridiculous alternatives like a .178 Hamilton when Campbell is available. If this sounds too devious consider a guy setting up fans in the outfield to relay signals to the dugout to bang a drum to cheat for the hitter. This is relatively simple divisive tactics in comparison. Abreu has a similar deal with Cora. It's obvious to even the lesser knowledgeable fans that Rafaela is by FAR the best RF on the roster and that makes Duran the best CF on the roster behind Rafaela and that leaves Anthony in LF. By NEVER using Rafaela in RF the obvious is never observed by the short-sighted fans that think CF should be Rafaela's position despite RF being the more difficult position in Fenway so Cora can orange cone RF for Abreu who as a platoon hitter should never have climbed above a 4th outfielder status. Now that Abreu is out, I am willing to bet Cora still won't go to the obvious configuration with Anthony in LF, Duran in CF and Rafaela in RF. It's too logical and it leaves no place for his favorite platoon hitting lefty that has yet to put back-to-back quality months of hitting together throughout his 3 seasons in the MLB. Inconsistency, a lack of ability at hitting LH pitchers and the guy still gets opportunities to be the starter in RF where Rafaela far exceeds him. The bias never ends with Cora. All we can do is root for his hap-hazard line-ups to do him in like in years past so Breslow has grounds to fire him and we can bring a REAL manager to BOS; one chosen by Breslow to lead the team in 2026.

When a player is evaluated, the team should look at all their attributes. Rafaela at 17 was added as an international player and played in the DOSL in his first season. His .271 average and .706 OPS was adequate for a 17 yr old player. His walk rate was .055 which is roughly average. He stole 19 bases in 26 attempts so he had good speed. He K'd 39 times in 203 at bats (19%). He played 44 games at 3B and 11 at SS in 2018 his first season. His fielding % at 3B was .957 and SS was .952 (very similar to Mayer when he broke in at an older age). Rafaela in 2018 was under the tutelage of the Red Sox organization. He is a product of THEIR development. He had tons of raw talent and what did Boston do to develop it? At age 18 he went to ROK ball and again split time at three positions 3B, SS and 2B. His 3B defense was bad 4 errors and low fielding % and his best position was 2B with a league average or better performance. He hit .248 at ROK with a .754 OPS and 9 of 11 SBs. This was a completely unimpressive year much like Mayer's early years except no injury. His 19 yr old season was lost to COVID. So in 2021 he returned at A ball at age 20 and put up more very average numbers .251/.305/.444/.729 with 23 out of 26 SBs in 102 games. Once again his walk rate was .054 nearly identical to what he did at age 17. His K rate was 21.1% (about 2 points higher than at 17). On defense we have to ask ourselves what the coaching staff was doing, and it shows how bad it was back in 2021 with Bloom as GM. Rafaela played 2B, SS, 3B, LF, CF and RF during his 102 game season. Exactly how does a young foreign ball player get comfortable at a position when he plays 6 of them? What stunts development of players? Bad coaching and this coaching was pathetic. Is it surprising his hitting didn't come around much while playing a different position nearly every game? Fast forward to 2022 at age 21 he was promoted to Hi-A where he finally started to show his potential at hitting despite being asked to play 2B, SS and CF at Hi-A and SS and CF at AA. Ceddanne put up an excellent set of hitting numbers at Hi-A .330/.368/.594/.962 with 14 of 16 SBs. Then at AA he regressed a bit with a stat line of .278/.324/.500/.824 with 14 of 19 SBs. His K rate at Hi-A was 24.4% and at AA it was back down to 21.8%. His walk rate at Hi-A dropped to .038 and at AA it was back up to .046 (roughly average). In 2023 at age 22 Ceddanne started at AA for 60 games posting .294/.332/.441/.773 with 30 of 38 SBs and a K rate of 22.4% and walk rate of .038 like he had Hi-A showing the coaches were not hammering home the need to be selective at the plate. Rafaela played 48 games at AAA in 2023 posting .312/.370/.618/.988 with 6 out of 11 SBs and a K rate of 24.1% and walk rate of a career high of .058 (above average). The coaching staff for the second straight year had kept his defensive positions limited to SS and CF with 84 in CF and 15 at SS. Rafaela got called up with 22 games left in the 2023 season. On 8/28/23 he pinch hit for a struggling Devers and went 1 for 1 in his debut. The next game versus HOU Rafaela sat while Story played SS hitting .194 and Adam Duvall played CF. The following game Ceddanne started at SS and hit lead-off for Boston vs Houston facing Framber Valdez. He went 1 for 4 with a double, a run scored and an RBI. Boston lost 7-4 and flew to KC for their next series. In KC Cora sat Rafaela again and he got in midway through the game for Duvall and went 1 for 2 raising his average to .429. Then next game he sat again and PH for Yoshida and took CF. He K'd during his one at bat. Then next game he again was used as a defensive replacement for Yoshida and played CF with no at bats. Boston went to TB and again he was a late inning defensive replacement for Yoshida while Wilyer Abreu was put in the leadoff spot vs RH'd Civale. Typical squirrelly Cora move. Made no sense considering he was batting 71 points lower than Rafaela and was an inferior defender. The next day Cora started Rafaela at SS and batted him lead off, a long overlooked logical move. Ceddanne went 3 for 6 and scored two runs bringing his average up to .429. Naturally, Cora shook things up again the next game and started Abreu in the lead-off spot and he K'd 3 times before Rafaela replaced him and went 1 for 1 raising his average to .467 and lowering Abreu's to .250. This time Rafaela played 2B, another ridiculous choice by Cora considering he hadn't played there for years. Boston flew home to play BAL and Rafaela sat once again and came in late in the game and struck out in his 1 at bat while playing 2B again. BAL destroyed the makeshift line-up Cora used. The 2nd game vs BAL he sat again and pinch ran for J Turner. scoring a run and going 1 for 1 raising his average to .471. The following game BOS finally won and Rafaela hit lead-off and played CF. He scored a run and lowered his average to .381. The Yankees were next in town and Rafaela played SS this time and batted 7th not lead-off. This marked the end of the days when Cora considered Rafaela a lead-off hitter and he was relegated to the bottom three spots in the line-up ever since. It makes no sense that when he gets hot he never moves back up to the top of the order, it's just another bias of Cora's that Rafaela must live with. Rafaela is the best defender in the outfield on the team NOT A 2B. Rafaela had a walk rate of .051 in the minors and that has dropped to .038 in the MLB. The coaching staff should be all over him to return his walk rate to league average .050. Rafaela had a K rate of 21.6% in the minors and that has risen to 25.4% in the MLB BUT in 2025 he has worked hard to lower it to a very reasonable 20.7%. Batting out of the 9 hole he has produced the 4th most runs scored on the team in 2024 and the 3rd most runs scored in 2025 so far. He's also produced the 5th most RBIs out of the 9 hole in 2025 and in 2024 he produced the 2nd most RBIs!! BASHING Rafaela, Duran and Campbell has become common place these day. There is no valid justification for it other than haters will be haters. These three young ball players are legitimate MLB quality ball players with the potential to make the all-star team any year. Anthony has moved into the same group with his excellence in 2025. This group includes the top 3 outfielders in the organization and all we need is for fans to recognize the attributes of Rafaela are extremely similar to Mookie Betts our badly mistreated franchise player. He is fast, a great defender with an above average arm which makes him perfect for right field in Fenway where half his games are played. Duran with his speed, excellent glove but lesser arm is perfect for CF as he demonstrated in 2024. And last but not least is the young franchise player as of 2025 Roman Anthony who fits perfectly into the greatest legacy position in BOS history, Left Field where Ted, Yaz and Rice all excelled. All we need is a new manager with actual knowledge of the game including how to build a batting order, how to determine optimum defense and how to manage a pitching staff. Three critical skills that Cora lacks.

Yet another metric flaw. Game situations dictate the distance from the player to the ball and they are never repeated and completely unplanned so a fielder's distance to the ball is irrelevant because it will never happen again and is completely random. Whether he catches it is absolutely critical to the success of the team so having 0 errors means Refsnyder helped the team more because he didn't control where the balls were hit, he only controlled his ability to field the ones that were hit and he was perfect. And who is to say if Cora had played the better player, Refsnyder for the exact same innings that Abreu played that Refsnyder wouldn't have made as many or more catches and less errors? That's a hypothetical, just like all metrics. Actual results are all that matter. The hypothetical is just some party estimating what might have happened with absolutely no certainty or accuracy. This topic was a sidebar compared to the meat of the information presented that showed Abreu is a lesser player than Refsnyder, Rafaela and Duran because he provides less value per game played and he's only facing RH pitchers for the most part..

I say no don't move Duran because of his speed, defense and leadoff skills can't be easily replaced. Abreu has more hype than substance so he might go for far more than he is worth so it's a sell high situation.

Baseball Reference has Abreu's errors at 5 and Refsnyders at 0. Refsnyder can't improve on that, especially if Cora is playing the wrong guy who can't hit LH pitchers.

Nick, you did a nice job summarizing the problem. I am against a platoon player being a starter so I trade Abreu immediately and put the best possible defense out there with Anthony, Duran and Rafaela in RF the toughest outfield position for 81 games a year and with Rafaela's superior arm. Refsnyder is an outstanding 4th outfielder, but Garcia should get an opportunity to beat him out during spring training. Bregman won't opt out, Story is hard to predict after 3 bad seasons and 1 good one, Mayer is unreliable due to his wrist and other injuries, Campbell has been wrongfully forgotten as he makes adjustments to return to his superior numbers from the minors, Casas has been forgotten as well. He's an excellent player and if Nate Lowe is kept he's a playoff experienced 1B who did well with the Rangers. The biggest problem on offense is CATCHER. Narvaez had ONE good month. He hit .218 in April, .356 in May, .254 in June, .197 in July and in August he is hitting .115. The Yankees parted with him for good reasons. Wong failed from the time he arrived in BOS and then became a ONE YEAR WONDER in 2024 as his numbers returned to below average in 2025. (.180 average). FYI, Kyle Teel is hitting .270 and Marcelo Mayer is out for the season hitting .228. Sure wish Chicago would have asked for him instead because the future of the Red Sox would be much rosier with Teel over Mayer. Teel filled an immediate hole whereas we have Story a couple more years at SS.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about Abreu and his achievements. Defensively, he finished behind both Rafaela and Duran in 2024 while both played CF and Duran had the higher number between, he and Rafaela but Rafaela was a rookie and has improved in 2025. Abreu finished last but played RF and the other Right Fielders in the AL are not comparable to the defensive skills of the center fielders thus Abreu's GG should have an asterisk because he wasn't even close to a top 3 finish on defense in the OUTFIELD in the AL in 2024. Next, Abreu in 2024 batted 338 times versus RH pitchers and hit .266 and batted just 61 times against LH hitters and hit .180 (86 points lower than against RH) That's why he is strictly a platoon player that requires another hitter to join him to face the LH pitchers which is a complete waste of a roster spot. The funny thing about this situation or should I say Abreu's limitation is that he shares the platoon with Refsnyder for the most part. In 2024 Refsnyder hit .302 with a 941 OPS against LH pitchers so he clearly was a MASSIVE improvement over Abreu hitting against those LH pitchers. The surprise is that Refsnyder also batted .267 (1 point higher than Abreu) against RH pitchers!!! So, Refsnyder hit better than Abreu against both LH and RH pitchers, yet Abreu got to play more. That speaks volumes to the bias I continue to complain about with respect to Cora. Refsnyder should have gotten more at bats than Abreu in 2024 based on performance. Fun fact, Refsnyder's defensive numbers this year are better than Abreu's in RF!!!! Duran in 2024 played in 160 games making him the most durable player on the team. Duran put up an 8.7 WAR, hit .285/.342/.492/.834 with 34 SBs and an OPS+ of 132 So if we all assume Anthony needs to be in LF for the next decade it comes down to who should be in the other two outfield positions. Duran performed the best of all other outfielders in 2024 while playing CF. Usually that gives him the edge for that spot and should. That just leaves right field. Rafaela is the best defender on the team, Refsnyder proved to be the best all-around hitter among Rafaela, Refsnyder and Abreu and when compared to Abreu he outhit him against both RH and LH pitchers BUT Rafaela's defense is superlative and against the weak defenders in the AL he has a great chance of winning a platinum glove annually if he plays RF like Mookie did. So ranking the RF options I believe Rafaela is #1, Refsnyder is #2 based on his 2024 and 2025 performance and finishing in last place in Abreu who can't hit LH pitchers and is being outperformed on offense and defense by Refsnyder in 2025. This data from Baseball Reference documents the bias that exists with Cora's decision making. Abreu has NEVER belonged in the starting line-up whether it's a RH or LH pitcher. He's a bench hitter and a potential 4th outfielder as long as LH pitchers aren't starting that day. People can cheer for Abreu to play all they want, the facts show that he has no business being in the starting line-up if you go by past performance.

ABSOLUTLELY NOT!!!! Baseball is about maximizing defense not favoring certain players. Clearly the data shows that to maximize the defense RAFAELA like MOOKIE should be in RF. Duran is an all-star quality defender in CF as he proved in 2024. RAFAELA is the best overall defender and belongs in RF where he plays 81 games at the most difficult position in Fenway. Anthony follows in the footsteps of the great Ted Williams, Yaz and Jim Rice and should play LF for his entire career. Lessening the defense so Abreu a platoon hitter can start in RF is typical of Cora and his bias. He's the 3rd best defender behind Rafaela and Duran and he certainly doesn't deserve to start before Anthony in the outfield considering he's a platoon hitter. At best, Abreu should be a platoon DH with Refsnyder but to me that's not fair to Yoshida who is costing the team $18Million a year. Yoshida should be the DH and Refsnyder who can play all outfield positions can be the 4th outfielder which completely eliminates the wasted roster spot Abreu fills as a platoon hitter. For 2025, carrying a part time player who is a late inning pinch hitter is fine because of his power but going forward Boston needs more complete players to roster so the 13 spots for hitters is maximized. Garcia should fight for the 4th outfielder spot in 2026 versus Refsnyder and Abreu needs to be traded for pitching.