Ceddanne Rafaela Injury Update: When Will Red Sox CF Return?

The Red Sox’s turnaround this season has been nothing short of remarkable, and a driving force in the team’s late-summer hot streak has been center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela. Rafaela is playing Gold Glove-worthy defense in center, and he leads Boston in batting average at .282.

Unfortunately for Rafaela and the Red Sox, he is currently on the injured list with a quadriceps strain.

Below, we will dish out a Rafaela injury update, and look at when he will return to the Red Sox’s lineup.

“Big picture, you’d like to not deal with it at all and have everybody healthy and good. But there are things that come up in the season—and a lot of times they come up in August, late August or early September—and you can’t really control it,” Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy told MLB.com. “Then you just try to do your due diligence with what’s going on with certain guys. Even though it’s an IL stint, if you see things that feel like, ‘OK, this feels like it’s a small thing, let’s try to keep it a small thing and not turn it into pushing [the player].’ And then we’ve lost the player for the rest of the year.”

Rafaela is eligible to return on Sunday, September 13 and Tracy believes it is probable that Rafaela will be back in the lineup that day.

“That’s my expectation,” Tracy said. “Obviously, he has to go through running stuff, and you don’t know how he’s going to respond to that. So it’s hard to say. But the way he’s progressing right now, that’s my expectation. We have to see how everything goes with the running. But we just got past the point of being able to wait [for him], and not have an extra player here for another four games or so.”

The Sox close out a home stand on Sunday and will host the Kansas City Royals. Boston then heads to Texas for a three-game set.

Here is a look at the Red Sox’s schedule around the time that Rafaela is expected to be back.

Cedanne Rafaela odds
Rafaela began the season with +30000 odds at Fanatics Sportsbook to win American League MVP. While the native of Curacao is having a fine season, one in which he will likely win his second straight Gold Glove Award, his offensive numbers just aren’t on the same level as a Yordan Alvarez (-20000 to win AL MVP) or a Junior Caminero (+1400) to win MVP.

Rafaela does have 151 hits on the season, which is the fifth-most in the American League.

Red Sox odds
On June 24, the Red Sox were 32-46 and going nowhere in the American League. A four-game sweep of the rival Yankees in late June, however, sparked something as Boston has been without question the hottest team in baseball since.

The Sox are now 80-66 and currently own the second Wild Card spot in the American League. Boston is just 3 games behind the Yankees for the top Wild Card spot in the AL.

The Red Sox are +1400 to win the World Series at Fanatics. Just five teams (the Dodgers, Brewers, Yankees, Rays, and Braves) have shorter odds.