Ceddanne Rafaela didn’t look like a top prospect in Saturday’s Spring Breakout game between the Red Sox and Braves.

He looked like a Major Leaguer.

In the exhibition game, one of 16 inaugural top-prospect showcases taking place around the league this weekend, Rafaela looked like a big fish in a small – albeit promising – pond. He went 1-for-2 with a towering three-run homer, his fourth round-tripper of the preseason, though it won’t count towards his spring training stats.

The Curaçao native is still technically a rookie, and a top-100 MLB prospect in rankings by Baseball America (No. 94), MLB Pipeline (No. 76), and Baseball Prospectus (No. 59), but he’s has spent the spring proving he no longer belongs on such lists. His energy is that of someone who’s aged out of that stage of his career, not unlike a college student who goes to visit his old high school, only to realize that he’s outgrown that version of himself and needs to continue moving onward and upward.

It was somewhat surprising when the Red Sox elected to keep Rafaela in Double-A Portland to begin the ’23 Minor League season, as evaluators in and outside of the organization already viewed him as a big-league-caliber defender with legitimate Gold Glove potential. Plate discipline was a key factor in not rushing the 23-year-old’s development. The Sox wanted to see more patience and pitch selectiveness; they decided that he shouldn’t be asked to balance honing such crucial elements and adjusting to Triple-A simultaneously, a source told the Herald last March.

By June 29, Rafaela was playing in his first Triple-A game. On Aug. 28, he made his Major League debut.

That was no guarantee he’d start the upcoming season in the Majors, though. In 28 big-league games last year, he hit .241 with 20 hits, six doubles, and a pair of home runs, but struck out 28 times and only drew four walks. It’s a small sample size, especially for a rookie joining a team in chaos, but it suggested Rafaela wasn’t quite ready. At the very least, he’d need to fight hard this spring to prove otherwise.

A year after Rafaela’s non-promotion, Double-A manager Chad Epperson believes the infielder-turned-outfielder has accelerated his timeline.

“His swing decisions are better,” the Sea Dogs skipper said during Saturday’s broadcast. “Every time I look up, he’s got a hit… You can tell, he looks very comfortable at the plate right now.”

There are still areas in need of improvement. Epperson noted that Rafaela’s timing against fastballs is a bit late, but as that’s partially due to trying to be more patient in his at-bats, he’s confident Rafaela will balance the two.

“He’s a smart kid, he’ll figure it out, and he wants to compete,” he said.

That competition should be in the big leagues.