Red Sox Prospect Watch: The month of May begins
By Mike El-Far
With the first month of baseball officially in the books, which Red Sox prospects have been progressing well? Which ones have struggled?
As the month of May begins, trends in players’ progressions are starting to form. Obviously if a guy is struggling in a week, it is not a big deal. If they are struggling over the course of a month, it is something that should be monitored accordingly.
In the first month, the Boston Red Sox farm system has had a lot of shakeups. Their top prospect graduated into a full-fledged MLB rookie. Their No. 1 pitching prospect was not so lucky, and ended up spending his first time of his young career on the disabled list. Finally, two of the top 10 prospects were called up to Boston in the first month alone.
Everyone who follows the Sox knows that Dave Dombrowski depleted the farm system over the winter. Whether that was trading a young player who shot up through the system like Mauricio Dubon or trading away two top-level prospects to acquire Chris Sale, Dombrowski’s wheeling and dealing didn’t help the pipeline of prospects.
Even still, there are some quality level players in the system. Dombrowski, in his first draft with Boston, was able to add some very talented players in the first couple rounds. While all three have some time before they are MLB-ready, it is a step in the right direction to build the system back up.
But, farm systems usually have ties to multiple GM’s. The same can be said for Boston’s. Not only is Dombrowski trying to leave his mark, both Ben Cherington and Theo Epstein have left theirs in the system. Speaking of Theo Epstein, that is where we begin this week.