Boston Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski has shown a willingness to trade top prospects to improve the major league roster. But just how far will he go?
Dave Dombrowski has a history of selling minor league talent in order to win at the major league level, and he’s done just that since joining the Boston Red Sox. But will he continue to do this as his farm system weakens?
Since agreeing to become the Red Sox’s head baseball decision-maker in the summer of 2015, the former Detroit Tigers general manager has seen top prospects like Manuel Margot, Javier Guerra, Anderson Espinoza, Mauricio Dubon, Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Luis Alexander Basabe leave the organization.
Granted, he did receive an All-Star closer in Craig Kimbrel and one of the best starting pitchers in the league in Chris Sale for these top Red Sox minor leaguers. Dombroski has not been shy about how aggressive he is on the trade market. While other franchises are possibly getting more shrewd about giving up young controllable talent, he has gone in the exact opposite direction.
In fact, Dombroski told Darren Hartnell of NESN that the thinking behind the Chris Sale trade was simple: It would help the Red Sox win.
"“We gave up some good young talent, and there’s no question we gave up two of the better prospects in baseball in Moncada and Kopech,” Dombrowski said. “We like the other two guys in (Luis) Basabe and (Victor) Diaz. But for us, it just came down to — we thought at this point that this gave us, really, a significant chance to win.”"
Obviously, every team’s main goal is to put itself in the best position to win the World Series, which is clearly Dombrowski’s state of mind. In my opinion, this is the correct route to take because the Red Sox are young and ready to make a deep playoff run over the next three seasons now that they have Sale. But the question needs to be asked, just how far will he go in depleting the farm system?
When in Detroit, the Tigers never had a top farm system and now it took him less than two years to drop the Red Sox from the top of the list to somewhere in the middle. Baseball America just released its organizational talent rankings and the Red Sox were listed at number 14 after being in the top six for the past four years.
It also should be noted that the Red Sox farm system is leaning heavily on its top position players as the departure of Anderson Espinoza and Michael Kopech has greatly diminished its pitching talent. In addition, Andrew Benintendi will soon lose his prospect status, leaving Rafael Devers and Sam Travis as the next best bats in the Boston minor league system.
Jason Groome is the lone premier pitching prospect and he is not expected to make an impact until many years from now.
It is a natural cycle for top farm systems to decline because the players make an impact at the major league level, which has certainly happened in Boston. But still, if Dombrowski continues to wheel and deal, what top prospect is next in line to be traded?
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There is no doubt that no player is off-limits in trade discussions when dealing with Dombrowski, but at what point will this start to affect his franchise’s long-term outlook?
There will be considerable pressure to draft well if Dombrowski wishes to continue to operate in this fashion. However, at a point, if there is nobody left to trade, will he decide to dish out big free agent contracts to improve the team just as he did with the Tigers?
The Red Sox’s young talent has allowed the front office to trade away some potentially great young players. But will Dombrowski change course when there is a lack of top prospects in the farm system?
It’s certainly something to watch out for in the years to come.
In the end, the Red Sox are in the best position to win a World Series thanks to Dombrowski’s aggressiveness, which is of course the primary goal. It does remain to be seen just how much the Red Sox organization will change in the coming years because of the tremendous gutting of its farm system undertaken by this new front office.
Next: Scouting Report on Nationals' Victor Robles
Do you think that the Red Sox will continue to trade their top prospects? Should fans be concerned that the farm system will take a major nosedive in the years to come? Let us know in the comments below.