Red Sox Weighing Idiotic Offseason Position Change for Ceddanne Rafaela

Chaim Bloom seems to have only one goal in mind when constructing his Red Sox rosters, and it ain’t winning the World Series. No, his mission is trying to force as many of his players to play out of position as possible.

How many times have we seen it through the years? J.D. Martinez in the outfield. Franchy Cordero at first base. Bobby Dalbec at shortstop. Enrique Hernandez at shortstop. Christian Arroyo in right field. The list goes on.

No wonder our fielding is so atrocious.

And now, of course, the Red Sox have cooked up another ludicrous defensive plan for one of their players.

Ceddanne Rafaela Position Change

Sean McAdam of Boston Sports Journal reported on Tuesday that Boston is considering playing rookie Ceddanne Rafaela at second base during winter ball this offseason.

As with most of Bloom’s plans, this one makes zero sense. Rafaela is a tremendous athlete and gifted outfielder. Just leave him there, for crying out loud. Don’t make him learn a new position that he might be terrible at. Didn’t we just go through this with Hernandez???

Here’s an idea. How about instead of trying (and failing) to teach players new positions, we go out and acquire people who actually play those positions instead? I know, crazy right?

But no, Bloom always has to take the hard way. He always has to act creative and try to jam a square peg in a round hole. Sometimes it works. Most of the time it doesn’t.

So why are the Red Sox even considering this in the first place? Because they have an abundance of outfielders. With Masataka Yoshida in left, Jarren Duran in center and Alex Verdugo in right, there’s no room in the outfield for Rafaela. There is an opening at second base, however, hence the idea.

Rafaela has also played second base occasionally in the minor leagues and with the Red Sox this year, so it’s not like the position is totally foreign to him. Still, it’s not the best place to maximize his skill set. I mean, just look at this catch!

All Bloom needs to do is either slide Yoshida to DH where he belongs (although that would mean moving on from Justin Turner) and/or trade Verdugo, which absolutely has to happen. If not, then yeah, there’s going to be a logjam and Rafaela will have to play somewhere else, but that’s hardly ideal for a rookie. You never want to ask a kid to learn a new position and figure out big-league pitching at the same time — it’s just too much.

But Bloom often asks for the impossible from his players, manager and coaches. He gives them water and expects them to turn it into wine, or in this case, a second baseman.

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