Between Ceddanne Rafaela, Jarren Duran, Rob Refsnyder, Roman Anthony and Wilyer Abreu, the Boston Red Sox have five players who’ve appeared in at least 30 games in the outfield during the 2025 season.
No matter the combination, manager Alex Cora has been impressed by the group, which he calls the “best defensive outfield in the big leagues.”
Cora made the claim following Monday night’s 8-5 win against the Kansas City Royals.
Per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe, some of the numbers back up Cora’s words.
“Cora reiterated tonight his belief that the Red Sox have ‘the best defensive outfield in the big leagues.’ By the numbers entering tonight, the Sox OF leads MLB in Statcast Runs Prevented (20) and OAA (22). FanGraphs has them first (by a lot) in DRS with 38,” Speier posted on Bluesky.
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Abreu’s already got the hardware to support his manager’s argument, winning a Gold Glove during his 2024 rookie season.
Both Duran and Rafaela are tied for fifth in MLB in outfield assists with seven, while Abreu is tied for third in the league in total zone runs with 15. On the downside, however, Abreu leads all rightfielders with five errors and Duran is tied for second-most errors among leftfielders with six.
Refsnyder is more of a part-time player, suiting up in just 52 of the team’s games this season, while Anthony is still getting his feet wet in the majors since his debut in early June.
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The Red Sox are on a league-best six-game winning streak and have pulled ahead of the New York Yankees into second place in the AL East at 63-51. A big part of the success has been the team’s outfield defense, which has earned the deserved heavy praise from Cora.
