Boston Red Sox prospects thriving in A, High-A

Well, the Red Sox earned a series split last night, taking two of the 4-game series from the Atlanta Braves with a 5-2 win. Prior to that, they’d been swept by the Orioles and Blue Jays and dropped the opening game of the Braves series for seven straight losses in a row. The Boys from Beantown are 29-39 and looking up at the rest of the division, which has become tight if not formidable.

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The current incarnation of the Red Sox and the accompanying woes are the result of a transaction spree that brought a bunch of doomed experiments to Fenway Park—Hanley Ramirez playing left field pretty much sums it up. Even though the 2015 season appears to be a slow-motion train wreck, there are bright spots within the organization, many coming from the franchise’s farm system. GotC’s No. 18 prospect Henry Owens is having an effectively-wild season in Triple-A and Eduardo Rodriguez is an unfortunate start against the aforementioned red-hot Blue Jays team away from hanging five stellar starts this season.

They aren’t the only bright spots; many prospects are thriving in the lower levels of the minors. Michael Kopech, one of the Sox’s first round selections in last year’s draft, is off to a promising start in Single-A Greenville: Last night, he went 4 2/3 innings and allowed two runs, only one earned, and struck out four. The start lowered his ERA to 2.98, lowest among the Greenville starters, and his WHIP to 1.24, good for second. Kopech also has a respectable 3.00 strikeout-to-walk ratio and .242 opponent’s average.

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Kopech’s teammates Javier Guerra and Rafael Devers are off to noteworthy starts as well. Guerra, a 19-year-old shortstop signed in 2012 out of Panama, has been struggling at the plate lately—he’s hitting .189 his last 10 games–but he is tied for eighth in the South Atlantic League with seven home runs and is seventh in slugging at .476. Devers, an 18-year-old third baseman, homered Wednesday and is now slashing .306/.336/.443. Devers also only has 35 strikeouts in 233 plate appearances.

Sam Travis, the Sox’s 2014 second round pick out of Indiana, is having a productive season at High-A Salem, hitting .306/.370/.455 to go with five home runs and 37 RBIs. Travis’ Salem teammate Manuel Margot went 2-for-4 Thursday, raising his average the past 10 games to .300 and his season line to .274/.315/.396. The lack of power—he only has 11 extra base hits, including two homers—is a moderate concern, but it should develop as he matures physically, and his speed has been on display this season as he’s stolen 18 bases in 22 attempts.

It should be noted that all of the above mentioned names are among the Sox’s top 20 prospects according to MLB.com, so this season maybe a loss, but the future doesn’t have to be.

Next: Who is MiLB's top prospect

All stats from MiLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com