Grown on the farm
Red Sox are starting to build sustainable minor league system
Chaim Bloom was watching a live stream of the Red Sox’ simulated game at JetBlue Park last Monday when top prospect Marcelo Mayer showcased his enormous potential, taking Nathan Eovaldi deep for a home run the 19-year-old won’t soon forget.
The Red Sox’ chief baseball officer certainly doesn’t want to overreact to a singular event, but it would be understandable if it made him excited about the future.
In just more than two years on the job, Bloom and the Red Sox’ progress in rebuilding the farm system has been significant. In February, they jumped 10 spots to No. 11 in Baseball America’s farm system rankings. That can be credited, in large part, to Bloom’s first two first-round draft picks – Nick Yorke in 2020, Mayer in 2021 – who rank 31st and 15th overall, respectively.
And though both are years away from sniffing the majors, their development has been promising. Yorke was the organization’s minor league Offensive Player of the Year in 2021, and Mayer has been impressive in his first spring.
“We’re really happy with where both of them are at, and really the credit should go to Paul (Toboni) and his staff for all the work they put in to put us in position to make selections,” Bloom said. “It’s a credit to the work that our amateur scouting staff did that we have that talent in the system. We’re not going to get them all right, but we’re really happy with how those two guys have started out their pro careers.”
Mayer and Yorke might be the headliners of the Red Sox’ system right now, but they’re just two pieces of the puzzle of Boston’s farm system rebuild.
Since the day Bloom was hired in 2019, he has consistently preached an emphasis to build a sustainable winner, and that starts with a strong foundation in the farm. He’s backed up his word to date. Of the Red Sox’ Top 30 prospects ranked by Baseball America entering 2022, 14 of them have been drafted or acquired during Bloom’s tenure.
It’s not just the high-end talent but the depth – which was left a bit barren by former president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski – that Bloom is trying to build up again, to give the organization greater opportunity to develop quality big leaguers who can one day become championship contributors.
“It has been a foundation of every championship this organization has won this century, one way or another, when you look at the impact of homegrown talent has had,” Bloom said. “No matter what your market size, no matter what kind of resources you have, it’s the only way to expect to sustain success. You might be able to experience success here or there without a really good pipeline, but if you want to be great every year, you have to find and develop talent really well, and if you do that, it really opens up the ability to do almost anything you want.”
That was on display last season. Looking to invest in a team that was surprisingly in the playoff hunt, Bloom struck a trade deadline deal to acquire Kyle Schwarber.
The cost? Aldo Ramirez, a top pitching prospect. The deal was ultimately worth it as Schwarber helped carry the lineup within two wins of a World Series berth, and the cost of losing Ramirez was easier to stomach because of the organization pitching depth Bloom and his staff continue to build.
There might be an idea that big-spending clubs like the Red Sox don’t need to commit so many resources to amateur scouting and development. But Bloom
views it as important or even more important than any aspect of roster and championship-building.
“People think of building up the farm system as something that only rebuilding teams do,” Bloom said. “I think it needs to be a constant emphasis for us and so much of that goes to the staff we have in place, the process we put in place behind the scenes, everything we do to better identify talent, to better develop it, it really is a massive undertaking
throughout the industry.
“If we want to be elite at it, we have to try to do it better than anybody else.”
The Red Sox are in good shape going into 2022. Bloom has held on to budding big leaguers like Triston Casas and Brayan Bello, who could each make their debuts this season. Their high-end talent is as good as any in baseball, and their growing depth gives them plenty of flexibility.
It’s certainly no finished product, but Bloom is happy
with the progress that’s been made.
“I think we’ve made real strides,” he said. “I’m really proud of a lot of what’s going on, not just with the players we have but also how our people are coming together to get them better. With that said, we’re not even close to done, and we shouldn’t be satisfied. The bar is really, really high to really honestly say that you’re doing this as well or better than anyone else, and we still have a lot of work to do.”