Hope for Ceddanne Rafaela, Red Sox After Scary Exit

It was a roller coaster of a day on Wednesday for the Boston Red Sox.

Early on in the day, the Red Sox activated outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela to make his first appearance for the club since Sep. 2. Rafaela was dealing with a quad injury that knocked him out of action for 17 games. With the playoffs right around the corner, the timing was perfect because it gave Boston's All-Star center fielder a few days to get right ahead of the postseason. But then things took a turn for the worse as Rafaela was forced to leave in the third inning of Wednesday's contest against the Cleveland Guardians due to what the club called right hamstring tightness.

With Rafaela out of the game, that certainly had the alarm bells ringing among Red Sox fans. But he gave the fanbase some hope after the game and shared that the injury felt "not even close" to as bad as his quad injury and that he thought it was just a cramp.

Ceddanne Rafaela Left Early On Wednesday

Sep 23, 2026; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Boston Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela (3) catches a fly ball hit by Cleveland Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez (11) (not pictured) during the first inning at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

"On the swing, felt a little bit of a cramp," Rafaela said. "I was not happy in that moment ... Hopefully it's something that's just today or maybe tomorrow and go from there. ... Not even close [to as severe as the quad injury]. I think it was just a cramp. Maybe, not hydrated enough ... right now, it feels much better."

Ceddanne Rafaela on exiting tonight's game in the 3rd:

"Not even close [to as severe as the quad injury]. I think it was just a cramp. Maybe, not hydrated enough... right now, it feels much better."

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The plan is for the Red Sox center fielder to undergo an MRI on Thursday to test the severity of the hamstring injury to see if it is anything more than a cramp.

For the Red Sox's sake, the best-case scenario would be the injury simply being a cramp. There was a lot of excitement and it was his first game back after a few weeks off. It's easy to get caught up in a moment like that. If it was just a cramp, then that's something he likely could come back from on Thursday or even Friday. Boston has four games left in the regular season and ideally Rafaela will be in as many of them as possible.

The worst-case scenario would be the MRI revealing some sort of strain, or something of that nature, and Rafaela needing to miss even more time. The playoffs will begin in five days, as of writing, on Sep. 29. There isn't much wiggle room any longer when it comes to injuries. On Sep. 29, the Red Sox will begin a three-game Wild Card series. All it will take is two wins to advance to the American League Division Series at that point. Boston needs Rafaela to be at its best. Fortunately, he said he thought it was just a cramp. But now we wait.

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