It was a seven-inning exhibition game with no three-batter minimum, or restrictions on pitchers exiting and re-taking the mound, allowed to end in a tie, with no chance of going to extras.

It wouldn’t count towards players’ stat lines or the club’s spring training record. That, of course, counts for nothing regardless.

But for the Red Sox, who’ve spent the last half-decade prioritizing rebuilding and transforming their farm system, the inaugural Spring Breakout game on Saturday afternoon counted the way intangibles often do in baseball. It was a chance to flex their elite talent, to unleash their top prospects on the Braves and see how the Sox stars of tomorrow measured up against the organization that’s developed such talents as Ronald Acuña Jr., Ozzie Albies and Spencer Strider.

So when Boston bested Atlanta 7-2, it didn’t feel insignificant.

Starting with Wikelman Gonzalez, 21, who blanked the visiting Braves for three innings. The Venezuelan right-hander is still honing his command, as evidenced by the three walks he issued, but the organization’s top pitching prospect battled through. He got his lone strikeout in the top of the first, worked around a leadoff walk and stolen base in the second, and with solid defense backing him up, pitched a 1-2-3 third.

Richard Fitts, one of the prospects acquired from the Yankees in December’s Alex Verdugo trade, pitched the following three frames. After struggling in his first inning, allowing two earned runs on a pair of hits and a walk in the fourth, he buckled down and faced the minimum the rest of the way. He opened the fifth with back-to-back swinging strikeouts, and finished the sixth with another. Luis Guerrero pitched a scoreless seventh, working around a leadoff ground-rule double and walk to get the final three outs of the game.

The Sox put their blue-chip ‘Big Three’ at the top of the lineup. Roman Anthony didn’t get a hit in his two-at bats, but he showed off plate discipline beyond his 19 years, drawing two walks, stealing a base and scoring a run.

Though Marcelo Mayer went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, he was selective at the plate; he saw 22 pitches over his four at-bats, including an eight-pitch battle in the bottom of the third. The organization’s No. 1 prospect also looked solid on defense, making some impressive plays at shortstop.

Kyle Teel, the organization’s most promising catching prospect since Jason Varitek, got the first hit of the game, and finished the afternoon 2-for-2 with a double, run and RBI. After catching Gonzalez, Teel told NESN’s Tom Caron that “Wiki” is so athletic that he “looks like a shortstop” during pitcher fielding practices (PFPs).

Nick Yorke and Miguel Bleis provided standout moments of their own. Yorke went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Bleis drew a walk, scored a run, and he and Eddinson Paulino stole a base apiece. Ceddanne Rafaela looked more like a Major Leaguer than a top prospect, putting on his usual defensive show and clobbering a three-run homer, his fourth round-tripper of the preseason.

The Braves prospects managed just three hits, and only scored in the fourth. The Sox prospects collected seven runs on nine hits, and scored in every inning from the second through the fifth.

“I think we have a lot of talent across the board, and we’re really excited for what the future holds,” Mayer told Caron.

Rafaela shining

In the Red Sox-Braves 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 the towering three-run homer.

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.

Rafaela broke out in ’22 when he hit .299 with a .880 OPS over 116 games between High- and Double-A, but the truly eye-catching, jaw-dropping development was his defensive prowess. He’d been a strong middle infielder, but upon moving to the outfield, he became a human highlight reel, leading Double-A Portland manager Chad Epperson to declare that the then-21-year-old was better defensively than Mookie Betts had been at the same stage of his minor-league career, when he’d made a similar position change.

“Rafa, you want him standing (in the outfield) but he’s a heck of a shortstop, too,” Triple-A manager Chad Tracy said on the broadcast. Moments later, Rafaela made an expert running catch and showed off his cannon of an arm with a successful throw to second.

Even after a pair of promotions led Rafaela from Double-A to his big-league debut late last August, there was no guarantee he’d start the upcoming season in the Majors. Even though evaluators in and outside of the organization already viewed him as a Gold Glove-caliber defender, Sox had opted not to promote him to Triple-A at the start of last season because they wanted to see more patience and pitch selectiveness.

In 28 big-league games last year, Rafaela 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 he wasn’t quite ready. At the very least, he’d need to fight hard this spring to prove otherwise, which is what he’s been doing.

A year after the non-promotion, Epperson believes Rafaela has accelerated his timeline to the point of big-league readiness.

“His swing decisions are better,” the Sea Dogs skipper said during the 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.