Chaim Bloom had two goals in mind when he was hired as chief baseball officer of the Red Sox just over two years ago -- improve the major league team while simultaneously building up the organization's minor league system.
In 2021, the Red Sox rebounded from a last-place finish the year before to get to the ALCS. Now, there's evidence that the minors are makings progress, too.
MLB.com ranked the Red Sox farm system 12th out of 30 organizations, a big jump from No. 24 last year. The 12-spot leap was the biggest for any team.
Writer Jonathan Mayo cited the addition of shortstop Marcelo Mayer, the No. 4 pick overall in last July's draft, as one of the reasons for the big reasons for the improved ranking.
He also cites strong minor league seasons by infielder Nick Yorke, Triston Casas, Jarren Duran and Brayan Bello as reasons for optimism about the Sox' system.
MLB.com ranks the Top 10 Red Sox prospects accordingly: Mayer; Casas; Duran; Yorke; Jeter Downs; Brayan Bello; Bryan Mata; Jay Groome; Blaze Jordan; and Gilberto Jimenez.
Of those 10, four of the top five -- all but Duran -- have been acquired since Bloom took over in November of 2019. Mayer, Casas and Yorke were selected in either the 2020 or 2021 drafts while Downs was part of the return package the Sox got in exchange for dealing Mookie Betts and David Price to the Dodgers in February of 2020.
Bello's progress mirrors that of the rest of the system. After missing out on a 2020 season because of the pandemic, Bello made huge strides in 2021 and was saluted as the Red Sox' Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year. Bello split his 2021 season between High-A Greenville and Double-A Portland and was 7-3 with a 3.87 ERA with 132 strikeouts in just 95.1 innings.
Mayo's positive comments and upgraded ranking are in keeping with what other evaluators are saying.
Baseball America has lifted them from No. 20 to No. 9 in its most recent (August) evaluation. In addition, Baseball America placed three of the Red Sox prospects in its Top 32 of best prospects in the game -- Casas was No. 20, Duran is No. 22 and Mayer is No. 32.
Looking ahead to next summer's draft, Bloom and the Red Sox will have more opportunities to continue to add to the system's depth. The Sox will pick 24th based on their 2021 finish. Because they were unable to reach an agreement with University of Florida outfielder Jud Fabian, their second-round pick last year, the Sox will get the 41st pick in the 2022 draft as compensation.
They'll also get their own pick in the second round and a compensation pick somewhere around 75-80, after the second round, for losing free agent Eduardo Rodriguez to the Detroit Tigers.
In all, that gives the Sox four of the first 80 or so picks -- assuming that, when the lockout finally ends, they don't sign a qualified free agent of their own (Carlos Correa, for example), which would cost them their own second-round pick.