FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2013 In the coming months, Ceddanne Rafaela hopes to check two boxes off his bucket list:<\/p>\n
Be teammates with a Red Sox great he\u2019s looked up to for over a decade, and have a season worthy of a defender\u2019s highest honor.<\/p>\n
The first item is already down on paper in the form of Team Netherlands\u2019 World Baseball Classic roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was looking up to him when I was coming up in the organization,\u201d Rafaela told the Herald of Xander Bogaerts<\/a>. \u201cDidn\u2019t happen, so I\u2019m really excited to be close to him and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n Bogaerts and Rafaela share a special bond, despite never overlapping on Boston\u2019s big-league roster. They hail from Aruba and Cura\u00e7ao, respectively, two of the three ABC Islands off the coast of Venezuela that are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 23,615 men have played Major League Baseball, but they are two of just 23 players from their native islands.<\/p>\n When Bogaerts debuted for the 2013 Red Sox, he became the fifth of now six Aruban players in MLB history (Chadwick Tromp debuted in 2020). Bogaerts won two World Series championships, five Silver Slugger awards, and was a four-time All-Star during his 10 seasons in Boston. He is the Red Sox all-time leader with 1,246 games at shortstop.<\/p>\n Rafaela, who began his professional career as a middle infielder in the Red Sox minor leagues, idolized him. At Fenway Park to receive a minor league award in 2022, he spoke about Bogaerts\u2019 influence. But by the time the Red Sox called up Rafaela late in the summer of 2023, making him the 17th Cura\u00e7aoan player in MLB history<\/a>, Bogaerts was in his first season with the San Diego Padres. Rafaela played several positions for the Red Sox and subbed in games in later innings before making his first career start, at Bogaerts\u2019 old spot.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve always looked up to the player he is, the human he is,\u201d Rafaela told the Herald in 2024<\/a>, when Bogaerts came to Fenway for the first time as a visiting player (but didn\u2019t play due to a fractured shoulder). \u201cI think he\u2019s one person always. Doesn\u2019t matter how he\u2019s doing on the field, I think you always see him being nice to the people, he\u2019s being one of the best teammates, that\u2019s what I\u2019ve heard. So I think those type of things are the things I really appreciate about him.\u201d<\/p>\n Rafaela hoped the two would be teammates during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but it never came to be. Instead, they keep in touch, as they\u2019ve done since Bogaerts was with Boston and Rafaela was down on the farm. Now, Bogaerts, who still keeps tabs on his old team<\/a>, watches clips of Rafaela being a human highlight reel at his old stomping grounds with pride.<\/p>\n