CLEVELAND — The way Red Sox platoon outfielder Rob Refsnyder has hit the ball hard during the first month of the 2025 season provides more evidence for manager Alex Cora who thinks the 34-year-old outfielder should pump the brakes on talk of retirement.
“I think of the conversation last year about retiring or being a front office guy. I keep telling him, ‘Don’t say that, bro,’” Cora said here at Progressive Field this past weekend.
Refsnyder played the final two games against the Guardians with left-handed starting pitchers on the mound both days. He went 3-for-8 with a homer, double and three RBIs to help Boston to victories in both games and a 2-1 series win.
The right-handed hitter posted a .941 OPS with 15 extra-base hits in 145 plate appearances against left-handed pitchers last year. He’s 6-for-17 (.353) with one home run and two doubles against them to begin this season.
He’s not just a lefty masher though.
He also might be the Red Sox’ version of Benjamin Button, a man who ages in reserve (see the 2008 Brad Pitt film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).
Most players hit their primes in their mid-to-late 20s. Refsnyder is in his prime in his mid-30s.
He had just one major league season with a positive WAR through his age 30 season. He has had four straight seasons with a positive WAR since turning 31.
“I always felt like I could get better,” he said.
Refsnyder pointed out that he has been fortunate to meet and work with a lot of great coaches a little later in his career.
“Without them I would’ve been out of baseball in my 20s,” Refsnyder said. “That’s why I’m such a big believer in player development. Because I guess I’m kind of one of those guys at the major league level.”
Refsnyder had the same role in his 20s that he does now.
“But I didn’t really know how to do it,” he said. “And I really didn’t know a lot about my swing and my game and things like that.”
Refsnyder also was too focused on getting hits as a young platoon player. He said he was “always chasing results” and thinking he needed a hit in every at-bat.
“I was just obsessed with results,” Refsnyder said. “That’s a terrible way to go about this game.”
It’s difficult for platoon players who sit for three or four days to stay fresh to produce at the plate. A combination of factors has helped Refsnyder stay sharp, including working closely with the strength and conditioning staff.
But it also has to do with mindset.
He gives Cora and hitting coach Pete Fatse a lot of credit for helping him learn to relax with a different approach.
“There’s the process of having a good at-bat, not being as result oriented,” Refsnyder said. “Obviously results are fantastic. They’re super important to winning games. But if you try to put yourself in good positions, hopefully over the course of the year, you can help the team win.”
Refsnyder also is having success against righties. He’s 5-for-16 (.313) with a homer and double against them this year. He had a .329 on-base percentage against them last year.
“Until maybe ’21, I felt like I was just treading water and just trying to figure out some things for that day to help me compete that night,” Refsnyder said.
Refsnyder credits Matt Borgschulte, who now serves as Twins hitting coach, for helping him turn around his career. They worked together in 2021 with Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate, the St. Paul Saints.
Refsnyder said working with Fatse and Boston’s player development coaches the past four years is another big reason for his late-career improvement.
They have focused on him controlling at-bats and hunting pitches in certain areas of the strike zone. The main thing is waiting for a pitch he can handle, then driving it.
“It is weird,” Refsnyder said. “I’m 34 and I’m getting a little bit more comfortable in those areas. So yeah, see how long the body can hold up though.”
He’s unsure how much longer he will play. He’s eligible for free agency after this season.
“Obviously it’s really early in the season but all I know is I love the city of Boston and really enjoy playing here,” Refsnyder said. “It’s a great group. I love the Red Sox. So we’ll see.”
Refsnyder is interested in staying in baseball after retirement. There are several avenues he could pursue, including player development. As he said, player development (at the big league level) is something that he’s extremely passionate about because of how his career has played out.
“Obviously with managing, the schedule is grueling,” Refsnyder said. “It’s pretty hard on your family. Just the managing schedule — I look at that and I look at how early Cora gets here, how late. He spends time texting players at night. Phone calls and things like that. And then you have to recruit people in the offseason, things like that.
“Player development-wise there’s a little bit more of a set schedule,” Refsnyder added. “So I don’t know exactly what I would like to do. But I think as I get older, I am able to pinpoint some things that I think I would enjoy and would find a fun challenge.”
He could always start in the front office, then transition to coaching like Jason Varitek did.
Former Red Sox manager John Farrell, who pitched in the big leagues for eight seasons, served as Cleveland’s director of player development before putting the uniform back on as a coach.
“I think you see a lot of players now transition to that special assistant right after,” Refsnyder said. “I heard it’s kind of like you do three or four different areas of either player development, coaching, and you kind of figure out where you fit in best, where the organization thinks you would fit in best.”
His focus right now remains on being the best player he can be.
“Controlling the strike zone, which I know I can do better,” Refsnyder said. “Also hitting the ball hard. So finding that balance. When I was younger, I was really doing my best to control the strike zone but I feel like I would give up opportunities to swing the bat just based on doing stuff like that.”
Refsnyder has an excellent 62.5% hard hit percentage and 16.7% barrel percentage. He has a .625 expected slugging percentage and an average exit velocity of 94.1 mph.
Squaring the ball up and barrel percentage are important to Refsnyder.
“Just swinging at the right pitches. And then when you do, obviously hitting it hard and hitting line drives,” he said.
The Trajekt pitching machine also has helped Refsnyder stay fresh as a platoon player. It simulates any major league pitcher’s windup and entire repertoire (with pitch shapes) for hitters to prepare.
“It definitely settles your nerves a little bit going into the box knowing you have a little bit of an idea of how the pitches are gonna look,” Refsnyder said.
He said uses it every day when the Red Sox are at Fenway Park. Red Sox hitters have access to it only there, not on the road.
“We’ve hit off robots pretty much our whole lives with machines,” Refsnyder said. “It’s the most realistic robot that we have in our game. And I think it’s super important.”
The outfielder began using it a lot last year.
“It feels like you can get at-bats before your at-bat,” he said.
The 2025 season marks the first year MLB has allowed players to hit off the Trajekt machine during games.
“I think it helps settle your mind a little bit, too. Like, ‘Oh, I’ve seen him. I’ve had failures, I’ve had successes on different pitches,’” Refsnyder said. “You have a little bit more of a game plan going into that at-bat. Obviously I wasn’t blessed with incredible physical tools like some of these other guys. So you have to kind of think ahead and game-plan for certain areas and pitches.
“I think the Trajekt’s the best thing that you can possibly have in our game for that,” Refsnyder added. “So I use it as much as possible — lefties and righties — because a lot of times I pinch hit and then they bring in a righty. So you have to be ready for both arms.”
Cora said Refsnyder puts in a ton of work throughout the day.
“We had a conversation (Thursday) about what players need to do to be able to hit at this level now,” Cora said. “It’s not show up, take batting practice and go. There’s a lot of stuff that happens down there from one o’clock up until 6:30. Different shapes of fastballs with the machine. Velo stuff. You name it. Angles and all that. So he makes sure going into the battle today, he sees all types of shapes, all types of angles that he’s gonna see at 7:05.”
