The Boston Red Sox bounced back from a rough 2015 to a very good 2016 with some home-grown players leading the way. What else is on the way?
An Introduction
Our minor league top 10 series is coordinated by Benjamin Chase, one of our contributors at Call To The Pen.
He has poured over thousands of minor league games over the course of the year via milb.tv along with speaking with a number of team and independent scouts. These lists are based out of those conversations.
Each system will have prospects from 10 to 1, and then finish with one newcomer to the system that is worth keeping an eye on that is not in the top 10 at this time.
Conversations are certainly encouraged in the comments section on each system as we go along!
Red Sox System Review
Many Red Sox fans were worried last offseason when Dave Dombrowski came in that their system would be torn apart. Dombrowski has the reputation around the game of using his minor league system mainly to acquire major league talent, but that is over played, and he showed it in 2016. When there’s a guy that he wants to keep on the system, he will, and he has at previous stops.
This year, the Red Sox were able to see both ends of Dombrowski. Two guys that were important to the future of the team were given time with the big league club, even in the midst of a playoff run, though both still remain eligible for this list.
There were guys who were traded away as well, however. Craig Kimbrel, Aaron Hill, Brad Ziegler, Drew Pomeranz, Fernando Abad were acquired for Anderson Espinoza, Manuel Margot, Carlos Asuaje, Javier Guerra, Logan Allen, Aaron Hill, Wendell Rijo, Aaron Wilkerson, Jose Almonte, Luis Alejandro Basabe, and Pat Light.
Now the Red Sox are making waves in pursuit of a big-time pitcher, and that could cost them a number of prospects. The good news for Red Sox fans is that while they don’t have the 7-8 top 100 guys that they did coming into the last offseason, there are 2 top 5 guys, another that should be top 50 for sure, and 4 more that could make some lists at the back end of the list.
Let’s take a look at that top 10!
Next: #10