Ceddanne Rafaela DVOA, Advanced Stats, & Fantasy Rankings

Boston Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela went 2-for-4 with a home run and five RBI in his team's 13-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday, adding a double and a sac fly. Rafaela hadn't collected an extra-base knock or driven in a run in over a week, so it was nice to see him do so in their bludgeoning of the Guardians. He had four hard-hit balls, too, with three of them exceeding 100 MPH. The Curacao native's average hasn't caught up, but he's making better contact overall this season, with an xBA of .257 and modest increases in exit velocity (89.6 MPH) and hard-hit rate (43.7%). Furthermore, he's cut his strikeout percentage (16.8%) and raised his walk rate from a season ago.

Boston Red Sox outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela is on the bench to start Saturday's contest against the visiting St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park. Second baseman Kristian Campbell is starting in center field and batting seventh, and David Hamilton will start at second base and bat eighth against Cardinals right-hander Andre Pallante. Rafaela has been hitting at the bottom of Boston's batting order early on in 2025 and has started out slow offensively, going 3-for-26 with three RBI, two runs scored, two walks and four strikeouts in his first eight games played. The 24-year-old was needed on the infield a lot in his rookie year in 2024 due to an injury to Trevor Story, but hopefully he can get settled in offensively eventually now that he'll be staying in center field on a full-time basis this year.

Boston Red Sox catcher Connor Wong and outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela are not in the starting nine on Saturday when they continue a four-game set against the Texas Rangers. Wong got the starting nod in each of the first two games and went 1-for-7 at the plate with a 1:1 BB:K. Rafaela started in each of the first two games as well and covered center field, and went 0-for-8 at the plate. As a result, Carlos Narvaez will get the start behind the dish and Jarren Duran will shift to center field, which opens left field for Kristian Campbell, and allows David Hamilton to enter the lineup and cover the keystone. Fantasy managers should expect both Wong and Rafaela to return to the starting nine for the final game of the series on Sunday afternoon. Narvaez and Hamilton are not worth considering in DFS facing Texas right-hander Tyler Mahle.