Darwinzon Hernandez tops Keith Laws top Red Sox prospects list

Prospect season continues in full-swing, and after Keith Law dropped his top-100 rankings (on which the Red Sox were shut out) and ranked Boston’s farm system number 24 in the country, he looks at all of the top prospects for every team in the league. This year, he started with the American League East, and the Red Sox list was dropped on Tuesday. Law always has very interesting lists that tend to part ways with the consensus. To be clear, that is not a bad thing. Just a reminder that this is behind a paywall so I don’t want to give away too much from his write-ups. I will, however, give my thoughts on some of the rankings. Here is his list.

1. Darwinzon Hernandez, LHP
2. Triston Casas, 3B/1B
3. Tanner Houck, RHP
4. Jay Groome, LHP
5. Michael Chavis, 3B
6. Bobby Dalbec, 3B
7. Alex Scherff, RHP
8. Antoni Flores, SS
9. Danny Diaz, 3B
10. Nick Decker, OF
11. Mike Shawaryn, RHP
12. Bryan Mata, RHP
13. Durbin Feltman, RHP
14. Travis Lakins, RHP
15. C.J. Chatham, SS
16. Brandon Howlett, 3B
17. Denyi Reyes, RHP
18. Elih Marrero, C
19. Zach Schellenger, RHP
20. Nick Northcut, 3B
21. Jake Thompson, RHP
22. Kole Cottam, C

• Like I said at the top here, Law’s list is always interesting and I really like that about him. Granted, I don’t always agree with his rankings and certainly don’t agree with everything here. That said, A) none of us know everything and B) it makes sense to have a lack of a consensus. When you think about how many prospects bust every year, particularly after you get away from the truly elite guys around the league, it’s weird how much consensus there seems to be in the public sphere. Law always sticks with his convictions and doesn’t let the opinion of others sway him too much, and that is a very good thing in his line of work.

This is the year for the farm system to take a step forward

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• As for the rankings themselves, well, the very top is certainly defensible. To me, Hernandez, Casas and Chavis are the top tier and could be in any order, and two of those three top the list here. I was, however, surprised to see Chavis all the way down at five. Law is both higher on Houck and Groome — much higher on the latter — than me and seems to knick Chavis more than I do for his defensive uncertainty.
• Scherff at number seven is very interesting, and while I wouldn’t be that aggressive with him it’s a nice reminder that he is around as one of those lower-level arms with upside. Law mentions a cutter as an addition to Scherff’s repertoire that could take him to the next level. One thing with the righty that I think can be easily forgotten is that he was a bit older than your typical high school draftee a couple years ago. The 2019 season will be his age-21 season. This is a big year for him.
• Danny Diaz is another one at number nine that I like a lot. I don’t know that I’d go this far because I’m a coward, but Diaz is a guy that I think we are forgetting about too quickly. It doesn’t help him considering how many third basemen this organization has right now, particularly if you consider Casas a legitimate third baseman. Still, Diaz is only 18 and signed for $1.6 million just a couple summers ago. There’s a lot of risk here and he has a lot of fine-tuning to do, but his tools at the plate are legitimate.
• The bottom quarter of the list is the most interesting part with a lot of names we haven’t seen from other lists, but again that makes sense. The Red Sox don’t have a strong farm right now, so it wouldn’t make sense for everyone to agree on the bottom of their top-25. Schellenger is one of my favorite guys to watch this year and he could potentially be up in the majors this year. Jake and Ian Cundall talked about him in the latest podcast episode. Marrero and Cottam are both nice to see here as 2018 draftees with a chance to become solid players behind the plate. Neither has a huge ceiling, though.
• I am personally offended by the absence of Jarren Duran on this list.
• At the end of this post, Law mentions Cole Brannen as his pick for “The Fallen.” It’s rough to put that label on a 20-year-old, but it’s hard to argue with it. I don’t know the last time I heard anyone with something positive to say about the 2017 second-round pick.