Well, Red Sox fans, we've got a problem: Yoan Moncada has signed with Boston.
Alright, so "problem" might be stretching it. But with our list of the team's top-20 prospects rapidly nearing completion, we do have to find a place to put him, because he sure as hell isn't #16.
In fact, with Moncada this is less a problem than with so many other prospects. If the Red Sox had suddenly traded for a mid-level guy, we might have to get complicated to figure out if they slot in anywhere from number five to number ten. Moncada makes this easier by being so good that he narrows the question down to:
Is Yoan Moncada a better prospect than Blake Swihart?
Either way, you could call these guys 1A and 1B. They're both top-20 talents in all of minor league baseball, and while Henry Owens is great and all, these two are just on a different tier entirely.
You might call this a battle between Swihart's proximity and position against Moncada's age and upside, but it becomes clear just how close this is when you consider that those strengths can really apply to either player. Swihart is just 22, on the verge of making the majors, and has the potential to be an extremely valuable player given his position and how well he plays it. Moncada is going to enter the system probably right on the verge of Double-A and plays an up-the-middle position in his own right.
But tradition dictates we have a #1 and a #2, so who's it going to be?