What's the Impact of the 5 Biggest Year-to-Year MLB Farm System Ranking Dips Since 2011?
Philadelphia Phillies: -16 after 2011
It’s tough to believe that after trading away 17 prospects between July 2008 and July 2010 for Joe Blanton, Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt, the Philadelphia Phillies could be ranked high enough heading into 2011 to even have 16 slots in the ranking with which to drop.
But with a prospect class headed by Domonic Brown, they found themselves ranked 11th, just outside the top-third of all farm systems.
Brown is only one of two players from that list to ever suit up for the Phillies. Despite a hot start to 2013 and an All-Star appearance, he played below replacement level baseball in parts of six seasons for Philadelphia. The only other player to reach the bigs for the team is Aaron Altherr, then ranked 10th in the organization, who has played 98 MLB games.
Brown and Altherr have combined to play in 591 games for the Phillies. Yelich, Ozuna, Realmuto and Hechavarria combined to play 595 this season for the division-rival Marlins.
The only return of substance the Phillies received from the remaining members of that list was Hunter Pence. The organization flipped three prospects on that top-10 list for Pence, who played one full season’s worth of games before being traded to the San Francisco Giants for a package topped by current first basemen Tommy Joseph.
The remaining players have retired, been released or sent away for minimal returns. The inability for the franchise to cultivate prospects to prolong their window of contention in the early 2010’s is a big part of why it shut so abruptly. The Phillies are the only one of these five teams who have experienced a drop of such magnitude and raised their farm system back above average.
Summary:
Like Chicago, the Phillies grooming their own homegrown stars that led them to the promised land. Cole Hamels, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard were all drafted by the Phils and formed the core of their dominant clubs from 2007-2012.
Despite going out and acquiring Blanton, Halladay, Lee and Oswalt, the aging core didn’t find any internal replenishments from a middling farm system and the window shut on Reuben Amaro Jr.’s outstretched fingers.
Impact on 2017/Beyond:
What did come from that, however, was a rebuild that general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. helped speed up on his way out the door. He traded Hamels to Texas for the team’s current third and fourth overall prospects in catcher Jorge Alfaro and outfielder Nick Williams, along with the team’s most reliable starter in Jerad Eickhoff and two other starters who spend some time in the majors last season (Jake Thompson and Alec Asher).
Matt Klentak, who succeeded Amaro’s regime, traded Ken Giles, the only homegrown prospect of any note from Amaro’s tenure (the core was drafted under the previous management). From this the team netted former first-overall pick Mark Appel and a current member of the starting rotation in Vincent Velasquez.
The failed farm systems between 2011-2014 lit a rebuilding fire under the organization. There was no doubt anymore that reaching for aging veterans like Marlon Byrd or Michael Young would not re-open their window of opportunity. Instead, it forced them shift gears quickly and has since built up the sixth-best farm system in baseball.
