MLB Pipeline unveils Top 30 Red Sox top prospects list

Earlier in the week, we got our latest (and unless I’m forgetting someone, our last) Red Sox prospect list from the national evaluators. This one comes from MLB Pipeline, who is in the process of releasing their top 30 prospects from every organization. They started with the American League East, and Boston’s list came out on Thursday. You can see the players and get their scouting reports by following this link.

Here’s the full list:

1. Jeter Downs, 2B/SS
2. Triston Casas, 1B
3. Bobby Dalbec, 3B/1B
4. Bryan Mata, RHP
5. Gilberto Jimenez, OF
6. Noah Song, RHP
7. Jay Groome, LHP
8. Jarren Duran, OF
9. Thad Ward, RHP
10. Tanner Houck, RHP
11. Matthew Lugo, SS
12. Nick Decker, OF
13. C.J. Chatham, 2B/SS
14. Brainer Bonaci, SS
15. Chih-Jung Lui, RHP
16. Connor Wong, C/INF
17. Cameron Cannon, SS/2B
18. Brayan Bello, RHP
19. Antoni Flores, SS
20. Chris Murphy, LHP
21. Marcus Wilson, OF
22. Ryan Zeferjahn, RHP
23. Brandon Howlett, 3B
24. Danny Diaz, 3B
25. Durbin Feltman, RHP
26. Andrew Politi, RHP
27. Aldo Ramirez, RHP
28. Tyler Esplin, OF
29. Yoan Aybar, LHP
30. Jonathan Arauz, INF

Some notes!

• We’ll start at the top, and we have another vote in favor of Downs being in front of Casas. If we take the major lists of Sox Prospects, Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, Keith Law and this one, that makes four of six having Downs in front. I think it’s closer than I think some others may, but for now without having a ton of info on Downs I think the play for me is to just conform to the majority opinion on this one. But I reserve the right to change my mind!
• The rest of the top ten is pretty much what you would expect, maybe with some orders shifted around. At this point it seems there’s basically a consensus for who the top ten in the system are among all of the lists. In fact, if you look at the standard deviation among the lists, Tanner Houck with an average ranking of 8.8 has the lowest. Gilberto Jimenez and Jarren Duran are also in the top five there. This does included Casas and Downs, because they are obviously agreed upon.
• This was the highest we’ve seen Decker on any list, and I tend to agree here that he should be at the top of this next tier. MLB Pipeline should feel good about this one at this point next year.
• The big standout ranking from the list is Brainer Bonaci, who has been getting some big-time helium since the end of the season. It seems he made an impression on some people at Fall Instructs. This is not a comparison based on talent or skillset or anything like that, but thinking just of the rise Bonaci is experiencing the last few months, I’m getting some Gilberto Jimenez vibes.
• On the low end of the spectrum, Chris Murphy had his lowest ranking here while Ryan Zeferjahn was near his. I get it for both, though I think I’m higher on Murphy. There are some control issues that need to be worked out, but he impressed in his first taste and there’s some real (not huge, but not insignificant) chance at a breakout here. Zeferjahn, meanwhile, seems like a reliever and a guy who will make the transition sooner than later. The stuff is big and I get the appeal, but the reliever questions this early in his career worry me a bit.
• Brandon Howlett is, I think, a sleeper breakout candidate this year. He was a big of a disappointment last year, but he was a high school draftee being pushed to Greenville in his first full season in the organization, which can be rare for a late round pick like him. Also interesting about Howlett: His standard deviation among the lists is second lowest in the organization, which is pretty wild for a guy outside the top 20 for most.