The Boston Red Sox continue making front-page news as Monday's 6 p.m. ET trade deadline approaches.
That's because the club completed a 6-1 road trip on Sunday with a three-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After dismissing the two-time defending World Series champions (who just added ace left-hander Tarik Skubal), the Red Sox have won 23 of their last 26 games.
A big reason for Boston's surge is the red-hot play of Ceddanne Rafaela.
The center fielder slugged a solo home run in Sunday's 8-4 win over the Dodgers. It was the fourth home run in the series for the 25-year-old, who has gone deep in three straight games.
But this is about more than just the weekend series in Los Angeles since Rafaela is hitting .329 since the All-Star break with a 1.014 WAR in 17 games.
His seven post-break home runs are tied for second in the majors with Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena. Only Washington Nationals shortstop CJ Abrams (eight home runs) has more post-break blasts. He's also second in runs scored since the break (15) and tied for second with 18 post-break RBIs.
Those numbers led to this tweet Sunday by Masslive.com's Christopher Smith: "Ceddanne Rafaela 15th in fWAR. A top 7 MVP finish is realistic at this point."
"He’s otherworldly right now," Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said Friday, according to Masslive.com's Sean McAdam. "He’s been outstanding, really good all year, obviously. The home runs on this road trip are showing up and so many of them have been massive home runs."
It's not just the home runs which are adding up for Rafaela. So are the slick plays in the field which earned him a Gold Glove Award last year and his first All-Star nod this season.
Rafaela is on his way to another Gold Glove award this year with 17 defensive runs saved, which is tied for third-best in the majors. (Teammate Wilyer Abreu leads MLB with 20 DRS.)
But it's Rafaela's work at the plate which is making headlines these days. His .289 batting average, .328 on-base percentage, .477 slugging percentage, .805 OPS, 126 OPS+ and 5.3 WAR all are career highs.
Yes, there is a lot of baseball still to play. And it's hard to anoint someone an MVP candidate with two months left in the regular season.
But at this point, Rafaela is certain to garner American League MVP consideration.
The last Red Sox player to win AL MVP was another outfielder with an exceptional glove: Mookie Betts, who won the award in 2018 while leading Boston to a World Series title.