Red Sox Star In Line For Major Award, MLB Insider Says originally appeared on NESN.
Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Do you want the good news or the bad news first on the Boston Red Sox? Let’s get the bad out of the way. The club ranks No. 19 in The Athletic’s latest MLB Power Rankings. While that is a slight improvement from the No. 20 the Sox ranked last week, the team sits in last place in the American League East, 11.5 games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays.
The good news? The Athletic named outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela as the Red Sox’s top awards candidate, with another AL Gold Glove Award in sight.
“At the start of the season, the Red Sox were a popular pick to win the division and maybe even the pennant, with Roman Anthony a dark-horse MVP candidate, Garrett Crochet an obvious Cy Young frontrunner and Alex Cora a reasonable choice to win Manager of the Year,” The Athletic’s Tim Britton noted.
“Alas, two months in, Anthony and Crochet are on the IL, Cora is enjoying time with his family, and the Red Sox are in last place. Rafaela is pretty easily the best defensive center fielder in the American League, and just about the only young position player living up to his potential in Boston this season,” Britton added.
The 25-year-old Rafaela has also been doing it with his bat as of late, hitting .293 during the last four weeks with an .880 OPS.
Rafaela picked up his first Gold Glove Award last year as the Red Sox advanced to the American League Wild Card series.
He’s trying to become the first Red Sox player to win Gold Glove Awards in consecutive seasons since Wilyer Abreu, who took home the award in 2024 and 2025.
Before that, you have to go back to Mookie Betts to find a Red Sox player who won Gold Gloves in back-to-back seasons. Betts won four straight Gold Gloves in Boston from 2016 to 2019.
Betts actually went 5-for-5, picking up a Gold Glove Award in 2020 during his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
More MLB: Injured Red Sox Pitchers Updates: Garrett Whitlock, Patrick Sandoval, more
