The Red Sox's farm system looks drastically different since Dave Dombrowski took over as president of baseball operations in August 2015. In his 18 months on the job, Dombrowski has traded away 11 players ranked on MLBPipeline.com's Boston Top 30 Prospects list, including current Top 100 ProspectsYoan Moncada (No. 2), Michael Kopech (No. 16), Manuel Margot (No. 23) and Anderson Espinoza (No. 25).
Those deals helped the Red Sox win the American League East last year and/or positioned them to make an even deeper playoff run in 2017, but they also thinned out a system that ranked as baseball's best when Dombrowski joined the organization. Boston still has a formidable trio of prospects in outfielder Andrew Benintendi (No. 1 on the Top 100), third baseman Rafael Devers (No. 17) and left-hander Jason Groome (No. 41), though there may not be any true difference-makers beyond them.
:: Team Top 30 Prospects lists ::
• Boston's 2017 Top 30 Prospects list
The Red Sox assembled their previously strong system through a combination of shrewd picks in the Draft and aggressive signings on the international market. As they look to replenish, they have high hopes for a 2016 Draft class whose top six choices made our new Boston Top 30, including possible steals in Groome (No. 12 overall in the first round), third baseman Bobby Dalbec (fourth round) and right-hander Mike Shawaryn (fifth round).
Biggest jump/fall
Here are the players whose ranks changed the most from the 2016 preseason list to the 2017 preseason list.
Jump: Lorenzo Cedrola, OF (2016: NR | 2017: 16)
Fall: Deven Marrero, SS (2016: 9 | 2017: NR)
Best tools
Players are graded on a 20-80 scouting scale for future tools -- 20-30 is well below average, 40 is below average, 50 is average, 60 is above average and 70-80 is well above average.
Hit: Andrew Benintendi (65)
Power: Rafael Devers (60)
Run: Lorenzo Cedrola (60)
Arm: Bobby Dalbec (60)
Defense: Andrew Benintendi (60)
Fastball: Jake Cosart (70)
Curveball: Jason Groome (65)
Slider: Stephen Nogosek (55)
Changeup: Kyle Martin (60)
Control: Roniel Raudes (55)
How they were built
Draft: 21
International: 6
Trade: 2
Independent leagues: 1
Breakdown by ETA
2017: 7
2018: 6
2019: 14
2020: 3
Breakdown by position
C: 0
1B: 3
2B: 1
3B: 3
SS: 1
OF: 3
RHP: 11
LHP: 8
Here's a look at the Red Sox's preseason Top 10 prospects from each of the past seven years (click here to see a larger image):