Hot Stove Lunch: Red Sox barely represented in prospects ranking; Darvish finds a surprise suitor and more

This is a daily BSJ off-season feature that will arrive in time for your lunch, Monday-Friday.

A spin around the leagues with the latest news, notes, and rumors around Major League Baseball

RED SOX

Spring training is rapidly approaching, which makes it that time of year: prospect list time.

Every late-January, early-February, web sites and publications release their Top Prospects throughout the game. Some rank the Top 100. Some rank the teams by quality of prospects. It's a fun exercise that gets fans geeked up about the upcoming season and young players on the rise.

Baseball America has released its version of the Top 100 prospects in the game, and, well...there's no nice to put this: it's not full of Red Sox players.In fact, there are just two players on the list, and they don't appear until No. 83. (Spolier alert: Jay Groome, followed in short order by Michael Chavis at No. 85).

That shouldn't come as a complete surprise. After all, Dave Dombrowski has utilized some top prospects (Manuel Margot, Anderson Espinoza, Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech) in order to fetch Craig Kimbrel, Drew Pomeranz and Chris Sale. You have to give up something to get something, etc.

Remember, too, that the Sox have graduated a number of top prospects in recent seasons. Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers aren't considered top prospects any more because they're considered among the best young players in the big leagues. That's a trade any club would make.

And it's important to remember that these lists are cyclical by nature. When you have top players make it to the big leagues, and trade some others for established stars, it takes a while to re-stock. That's where the Sox are now.

AL EAST

Are the Yankees already planning on going after Bryce Harper next winter?

Outfielder Jarrod Dyson appears to be a target of the Orioles.

Alex Cobb hasn't found free agency to be much fun 

Marcus Stroman is predicting big things in 2018.

AL CENTRAL

At a Fan Fest over the weekend, Cleveland Indians fans were full of optimism.

The Tigers may be well-positioned to find some pitching bargains on the slow free agent market.

Here at five questions for the White Sox heading into spring training.

The Royals find themselves at something of a crossroads.

AL WEST

Last year, it was Yonder Alonso. Who will the A's biggest surprise me this season?

There's more competition in the way for the Rangers to re-unite with Yu Darvish

It doesn't appear that the Astros and free agent catcher Jonathan Lucroy are a good fit.

NL

The Brewers are in on Darvish.

TAKE I MAY REGRET IN A MONTH

A few years ago, the idea that a team in Milwaukee would be in the bidding for a free agent the caliber of Yu Darvish would have been unthinkable. Simply put, they wouldn't have had the resources to even contemplate such an investment.

But thanks to revenue sharing, small-market teams -- and I believe Milwaukee is the smallest market in the game -- can now compete for some big stars. Not every one, mind you. And probably not for the likes of Bryce Harper or Mike Trout. The latter are likely still the purview of the game's economic super powers (Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs, Red Sox etc.) and small-market teams have to be at least somewhat selective, picking and choosing their spots.

But the changes in the game's economic structure -- revenue sharing, vastly improved local TV deals, money generated by Baseball Advanced Media (BAM) - have all enabled teams to be far more competitive when it comes to paying big salaries.

No matter what way you look at it, that's a positive development.