SoxProspects.com end-of-season rankings countdown: The Top Ten

From the home office in Sioux City, Iowa, here are the Top Ten Prospects in the Boston Red Sox minor league system. 

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10. Luis Perales

Preseason Rank: Unranked

2022 Stats: 13 games, 11 GS, 35 2/3 IP, 1.77 ERA, 20 H, 50 K, 20 BB, 1 HR @ FCL, Salem

"The raw stuff is great, he just needs to get healthy." It's a refrain that seemingly always applies to some mysterious arm in the low minors. Almost always, it doesn't happen. Either the pitcher never really gets healthy, or he does, and the stuff is just not what those initial glowing reports indicate. Once in a great while, however, there is a Luis Perales. Signed back in 2019 to a modest $75,000 bonus, word of Perales' talent started spreading as soon as that fall's Tricky league. A 2020 lost to COVID and a 2021 in which various injuries limited him to two innings in the DSL dropped him off of the rankings entirely. He returned to competitive action on June 10, allowing two runs in three innings for the FCL Red Sox. He would go on to make eight more appearances at that level, allowing just one earned run in total. In his July 11 start, he faced nine batters striking out eight of them. In 25 dominant innings, he surrendered only 10 hits, walked nine, and struck out 34 (36.2% of batters faced). His control wobbled some after a promotion to Salem, but he continued to miss bats and impress scouts. Developmentally, he will need to show that he can handle a starter's workload: he was understandably handled carefully, never facing more than 15 batters or going beyond three innings in any appearance. 

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SoxProspects.com end-of-season rankings countdown: 20-11

Today we move into our top 20, featuring several players who had standout seasons in 2022. Five players in this group were recognized as SoxProspects.com All-Stars, including Niko Kavadas (pictured) and Eddinson Paulino. The Salem Red Sox are also very well represented in today's edition, with seven of the ten players having played some or all of their 2022 seasons there.

If you missed the first two segments of this series, make sure to check prospects 60 to 31 from Monday, and yesterday's 30 to 21 edition. 

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20. Niko Kavadas

Preseason Rank: 46

2022 Stats: 120 games, 515, PA, .280/.443/.547, 26 HR, 102 BB, 152 K @ Salem, Greenville, and Portland

In June, Kavadas had what was probably the best offensive month in the 20-year history of this site. He hit .377/.524/.951 with 10 home runs over 19 games with Salem, earning a promotion to Greenville. Instead of an adjustment period, he proceeded to go 9 for 19 with four home runs in six games. He homered in five consecutive games and in 11 of 15 between the two levels. An August assignment to Portland was a more difficult transition. While he continued to work deep counts and draw walks, he hit just .222 with two home runs and 40 strikeouts against the more advanced competition. Some fatigue would be understandable, but continuing to hit will be key to his propsect status. As a first base-only player, Kavadas will need to rake. Given how he did so at Notre Dame and in continued to at Class A, that's certainly not out of the question.

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SoxProspects.com end-of-season rankings countdown: 30-21

Welcome to day two of our SoxProspects.com end-of-season countdown! Following yesterday's recap of prospects 31 through 60, we now move forward in groups of ten. This group features a pair of 2022 draftees, as well as two potential key 2023 bullpen pieces in Zack Kelly (pictured) and Franklin German.

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30. Brooks Brannon

Preseason Rank: NA; 2022 ninth-round pick

2022 Stats: 5 games, 15 PA, 6 for 13, 2 3B, 5 RBI @ FCL

Brannon, Boston's ninth-round pick in July, got an overslot $712,000 bonus to sign him away from a commitment to Chapel Hill. He put up video-game type numbers as a high school senior, hitting 20 home runs and driving in 91 in 34 games, posting a 1.330 slugging percentage. As he moves to the professional ranks, the question becomes whether he can stick at catcher. If he can, the power potential is obviously huge. If he can't, he'll be in a position where the offensive bar is quite a bit higher. 

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SoxProspects.com end-of-season rankings countdown: 60-31

Welcome to our official SoxProspects.com season end rankings. Our first segment details those ranked from 31 to 60. It is a group that includes several prominent prospects, including recent 40-man addition David Hamilton (pictured), international bonus baby Freili Encarnacion, and Meatball Gangster-turned-Fall Star Stephen Scott. The group also includes 13 players who were not ranked at the start of the season: two 2022 draft picks, one player acquired in a trade, and 10 previously unranked players who have played their way onto the list.

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Graduating: Connor Wong

Preseason Rank: 27

Final Rank: 11

2022 Stats: 355 PA, .288/.349/.489, 15 HR, 27 BB, 80 K at Triple-A Worcester; 56 PA, .188/.273/.313 in majors

-Wong did not reach the 130 at-bat threshold, but exceeded the service time limit for rookie eligibility. After a slow start at Worcester, Wong heated up with the weather, hitting the ball with more authority on his way to SoxProspects.com and International League Player of the Month honors in August. He also has earned a reputation as someone pitchers enjoy throwing too, a trait that puts him in the conversation as part of the major league club's catching mix in 2023.

60. Jacob Webb

Preseason Rank: 56

2022 Stats: 44 games, 56 2/3 IP, 3.18 ERA, 88 K, 28 BB @ Salem, Greenville, and Portland

-The 6-foot-5 right-hander had a strong first full season after being drafted in the 14th round in 2021. Webb led the organization with 14.0 strikeouts per nine innings, earning a ticket to the Arizona Fall League.

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May 2021 Ranking Update: Whitlock rises, Dalbec graduates

The May 2021 ranking updates are live. The delayed start to the minor league season led to relative stability on the big board, with the most notable exceptions being a pair of current major leaguers: Bobby Dalbec (pictured, left), a fixture in the Top 20 for much of the last five years, reached the 130 at-bat milestone and graduated from prospect status; and climbing up from #16 in the rankings to fourth is rookie sensation Garrett Whitlock. 

Whitlock a rare Rule 5 phenom

For much of the last decade, Boston's

 role in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft had been as a trade facilitator. Players such as Jeff Kobernus, Jandel Gustave, and Marwin Gonzalez were selected by Boston only to be flipped for considerations without such onerous roster requirements. Between 2009 and 2018, the only player the Red Sox selected without the intention of dealing him was Josh Rutledge, who weeks earlier left the Boston organization to ink a minor league deal with Colorado only to be crooked back. That trend shifted when Chaim Bloom selected infielder Jonathan Araúz from Houston in December of 2019 and was able to keep him on the major league roster throughout the shortened 2020 campaign. Araúz remains with the organization, currently a member of the major league taxi squad and sitting at 22nd in the prospect rankings.

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Big moves for Lakins, Acosta highlight updated rankings

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- When the SoxProspects.com staff got together in Fort Myers over the past week, one of the goals was to take an in-depth look at the rankings and overhaul them as necessary. It turned out to be a much more detailed and lengthy process than expected.

The complete SoxProspects.com rankings can be found split between the top 20 and the prospects ranked 21-60. Below is a notebook of some of the debates, discussions, tiers, and insight into the rankings process that occurred over the course of the afternoon of Saturday, March 19 in Room 321.

• The plan was to start at the top of the rankings and work our way down. Right out of the gate, we all agreed that there is a clear top 4 prospects and that Yoan Moncada still deserves to top the rankings. The only other discussion on the top four was whether 18-year-old Anderson Espinoza (pictured, right) deserved to jump third baseman Rafael Devers, who currently ranks second. Espinoza looked extremely impressive in his first spring outing, as Chaz and Ian noted in their Notes from the Field. Ultimately, the fact that he spent almost the entire season in the GCL meant that he was so far away that he was best kept in the third spot for the time being.
• The next debate was whether anyone had passed righty Michael Kopech for the fifth spot in the rankings. Despite being a level below the top four, he still has  impressive talent and upside that tops anyone else in the system at this time.

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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.

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Rankings Report: Debating the new number one prospect

Since July 20, 2012, the SoxProspects.com top prospect has stayed the same, and there was no debate necessary. With the graduation of Xander Bogaerts on Friday, however, that has changed and there was interesting discussion among the site’s management about who should be the new top prospect. Below is inside-look at that debate which included Editor-in-Chief Mike Andrews, Executive Editor Chris Hatfield, Managing Editor Matt Huegel, and Director of Scouting Ian Cundall. The four main candidates considered for the top spot were: Henry Owens, Mookie Betts, Garin Cecchini, and Blake Swihart.

Mike Andrews – Editor-in-Chief

While contemplating it for a good while, I chose Betts (pictured, right) over Owens because of Betts’ ridiculous consistency for the past 13 months, in four different leagues, all playing above his age level. I’ve also seen him quite a few times in that stretch, whether live or on MiLB.tv. It's already been established that he has a great plate approach and plays plus defense, and beyond the scouting the stats speak for themselves on offense. He really barrels up on the ball and laces it to the gaps. Betts has also been pesky on the basepaths over and above just stealing a lot of bases -- he's reminiscent of Jacoby Ellsbury in that vein.

While I also see big things for Owens, his command and control have been too inconsistent. I do think he’ll add some velocity and I love his secondary stuff, but without some refinement around the edges, the whole package will not fool advanced hitters as much once there is a book on him. That said, I see the possibility for that refinement and I still see Owens as a potential #2 or #3.

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