Throughout his professional career Ceddanne Rafaela has played at a high level defensively at both shortstop and center field, and last season he wound up playing more than 80 games at each after Trevor Story went down with his shoulder injury.

But this year the Red Sox hope to have him focus on just one position.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said Wednesday that Rafaela will get the majority of his reps this spring in center field, enabling him to fully commit himself to what the club believes is his best position.

“He’s going to play (there) a lot,” Cora said. “Most of his repetitions in spring training are going to be in center field.”

Considered one of the best defensive outfielders in baseball from the moment he reached the majors, Rafaela made numerous highlight-reel catches as a rookie, several of which helped preserve late leads. But top Red Sox officials have repeatedly said they feel he could have been even better if hadn’t needed to spend so much time covering in the infield.

Now the club hopes that between Rafaela, the Gold Glove-winning Wilyer Abreu and Jarren Duran, who ranked second among all MLB outfielders with 23 defensive runs saved, the Red Sox will once again have among the best defensive outfields in the game.