For the first time since Baseball America started its annual preseason farm system rankings in 1984, the Boston Red Sox have claimed the No. 1 spot. The club still features three of the top 15 prospects in Major League Baseball despite this winterâs blockbuster trade for Chicago White Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet.
The Red Sox farm system jumped to number one overall from a 13th place ranking in 2024.  “No other organization can match the trio of Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer,” read Baseball America’s report, “And Bostonâs pitching depth has improved as well.”
Boston ranked second in The Athletic’s farm system rankings by Keith Law on January 30. When the team traded homegrown superstar Mookie Betts to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2020 offseason, its minor league system ranked 22nd among MLBâs 30 teams.
That trade marked the beginning of a largely unspoken change in the team’s organizational philosophy to a more cost-conscience approach of drafting and developing homegrown players versus inking big money, long-term contracts on established Major League free agents. But recent changes to the team’s baseball operations indicate that the team is cutting costs there as well.
Former Red Sox General Manager Chaim Bloom ânow an executive with the St. Louis Cardinals, oversaw four drafts in Boston. Bloom was was responsible for drafting Marcelo Mayer and Roman Anthony, as well as Kyle Teel, who was part of the package sent to the White Sox for Crochet. Kristian Campbell âwho enters in 2024 spring training as a candidate to break camp as the team’s starting second baseman, was selected by current Red Sox GM Craig Breslow.
The club’s high system ranking “makes it all the more puzzling that the new baseball operations heads decided to pull a midnight massacre on their scouting group,” writes Law, “Notably the pro side, just as the system has recovered from a low point in the wake of the 2018 World Series win.”
The mentioned changes followed an audit of the team’s baseball operations by the sports management consulting firm Sportsology, hired by Breslow in early 2024. By September, the Red Sox had decided not to renew the contracts of three pro scouts, including three members of the amateur scouting department, three pitching coordinators, and a minor league managerâmarking a clear shift in the front officeâs direction.
“Farm systems donât get and stay good by accident, or magic,” concluded Law. “It takes people.”
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