Rankings Report: But what about Moncada????

It's a question we've received a lot recently:

"When are you guys gonna rank Yoan Moncada?"

Now, if you've been paying attention, you knew that we were planning to debut the 19-year-old Cuban infielder as the system's number two prospect, behind Blake Swihart. This decision came after a quick but spirited debate among the SoxProspects brass when news broke of Moncada's agreement with the Sox way back on February 23, during which we agreed on the following:

• Moncada was either first or second in the system, for sure. It was just a matter of which. Internal opinions differed on that, but we all knew it was basically a crapshoot based on what we'd read.
• Naming a new top prospect in the system is just... different. It means something. You will never see a player described in a mainstream news article as "the system's consensus second-best prospect." This is also evidenced by the fact that players are aware of (or made aware of) this in a way they aren't necessarily as a "top five" prospect or something. Conversations with Lars Anderson proved that this was something he was aware of, and I've always surmised that the pressure of being the top prospect in the system was why he put so much pressure on himself (as described by his former manager, Gabe Kapler, in this great piece he wrote for WEEI.com a couple years back.)
• We knew we would be adjusting our rankings after our trip to Fort Myers at the end of March, and the majority opinion was that it'd be better to move him up than move him down. Again, the number 1 spot is just different, and the idea was that we didn't want to put a guy there for four weeks and then think better of it.
• As per our usual policy, we weren't going to add him to the site rankings until his signing became official.

And then... it took nearly three weeks for his signing to become official. 

This should not have been a complete surprise, as such a waiting period is not entirely atypical for top draft picks, for example, if perhaps on the longer side of typical. Meanwhile, we're going to have feet on the ground in Fort Myers starting on Tuesday, March 17.

And so—despite the fact that I'd trumpeted on Twitter, announced on a podcast, and mentioned in no fewer than three radio appearances the week that Moncada's decision was announced that we'd be slotting him at number 2 THANKS GUYS—we made a decision this week to just wait until we see Moncada to rank him. We just didn't see the point of making a decision on where to put him sight unseen when we were going to get the chance to watch him in mere days.

So, keep your eyes out for a big rankings update the week after we return from the Fort, one which will slot Moncada into his rightful place, wherever we figure that is. In the meantime, be sure to check in here at SoxProspects News for great new content from our trip, which will run from Tuesday through Sunday!

As always, thanks for reading.

Chris Hatfield is Executive Editor of SoxProspects.com. Follow him on Twitter @SPChrisHatfield.

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