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Red Sox trade ‘best farm’ title for pennant pole position
- Updated: December 8, 2016
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — When Dave Dombrowski took over as the Red Sox’s president of baseball operations on Aug. 18, 2015, the organization resided in last place in the American League East, but at the time it could bank on the promise of the game’s best farm system.
The Red Sox won the AL East in Dombrowski’s first full season on the job, and after he pulled off the biggest blockbuster deal of the Winter Meetings on Tuesday, they’re the favorites to win the 2017 AL pennant. But as the big league club’s fortunes have risen, Boston’s system has headed in the opposite direction — and those developments aren’t unrelated.
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The purpose of any farm system is to help its Major League club win. And the Red Sox’s system is doing that, as Dombrowski has elected to trade several of the organization’s best prospects for veterans who could contribute immediately.
Dombrowski’s first major deal came in November 2015, when he sent outfielder Manny Margot, shortstop Javier Guerra, left-hander Logan Allen and infielder Carlos Asauje to the Padres for closer Craig Kimbrel, who would earn his fifth All-Star Game berth in his first year in Boston. Dombrowski went back to San Diego in July for another All-Star in left-hander Drew Pomeranz, surrendering an elite right-hander in Anderson Espinoza in what seemed like an overpay to many at the time and looked worse when …
