Last spring, scouts crowded the back fields of JetBlue Park in order to get glimpses of the Red Sox minor leaguers who comprised one of the best farm systems in baseball. This year, following the trades for Chris Sale and Tyler Thornburg that scraped six of the Red Sox’ top 20 prospects from the system, the scene proved different.
The Red Sox still possess some high-end talent in their farm system, foremost third baseman Rafael Devers and lefthander Jay Groome. That said, the prospect pool has been depleted significantly, and the diminished volume of evaluators from other organizations on hand suggested as much.