Alex Cora must make a push for obvious Rookie of the Year candidate to get some love

I'm stepping out of my comfort zone a bit on this one, but I do think I have some firm ground to stand on here. I really only follow along to what my Atlanta Braves do when it comes to my MLB interests. However, I have noticed the Boston Red Sox are not a flaming dumpster fire this season. They are playing above-.500 baseball and could make the postseason. This is absurd!

A big reason for that has apparently been the stellar play at shortstop for regional rookie sensation Ceddanne Rafaela. Across social media, I've been seeing baseball fans talking about this Rafaela guy constantly. Stupid me believed they were giving Rafael Devers, an established star at third base for the Red Sox, a new nickname or something. As it turns out, they were actually talking about a rookie.

So because the Red Sox are overachieving and the appear to have someone fun play in the middle of their infield in the midst of the Trevor Story disaster, I would say that Rafaela has to be in the mix for AL Rookie of the Year, right? Well, he is going to need his manager Alex Cora to step up and campaign for him in a big way. If Rafaela continues to play this well into the second half, then he has got to be it.

Here is what Cora told beat reporters at NESN about the great player of his team's rookie revelation.

“The kid, he’s really good. I’m surprised people are not talking about him in the conversation of Rookie of the Year because what he’s done throughout the season is amazing. Playing elite defense in centerfield. Playing great defense at shortstop,” said Cora.

The guy can clearly do everything. It is not like Boston is a small-market franchise. Be all about him!

Alex Cora needs to continue to campaign for Ceddanne Rafaela for ROTY

I think it is some combination of him arriving early out of necessity, as well as his bat slowly coming along that have hurt the early buzz around Rafaela being a serious AL Rookie of the Year candidate. Admittedly, Boston cannot fade in the summer like a smile in a blink-182 song this time around. Just because they are in the mix to be an AL Wild Card team today doesn't mean they are going to be one.

One of the things that had made Red Sox baseball hard to watch from afar in recent years was how consistently bad they were a defense. Devers would occassionally flash the leather, but I would regularly see them making one bonehead play in the field after another. You cannot give professional baseball players at the highest level extra outs. They will make you pay for them ... every single time.

Overall, Rafaela seems to have been a spark plug in the middle of the Boston defense. Finding a long-term solution for him defensively could be an exciting story to follow along with. For my money, he has been a far better story of a Boston newcomer this year than Vaughn Grissom coming over from Atlanta. For as good as Grissom ever becomes, Chris Sale might win the National League Cy Young.

If Rafaela has resonated with me, a fan of an NL franchise in another part of the country, that matters.