A look into why the Dodgers are deemed to have a top-three farm system at ESPN, Baseball America, and The Athletic.
With five national top-100 prospect lists out to date, various other prospect rankings, analyses, and information has been released in the last few weeks. That includes three sites unveiling their ranking of farm systems so far, and the Dodgers are highly regarded.
ESPN ranks the Dodgers’ farm system as the best in baseball, while the Dodgers are rated third-best overall at both Baseball America and The Athletic.
At ESPN, Kiley McDaniel quantifies future value into a monetary term, and ranks teams accordingly. The Dodgers, with a $420 million future value) have a sizable lead over the No. 2 White Sox ($313 million) that is slightly less than the future value of No. 1 prospect Roki Sasaki.
In writing up the system, McDaniel also focused on the depth of the system:
Los Angeles got here via a number of scouting and developmental avenues to maximize their system. Among their prospects on the top 100 list: Dalton Rushing was a top-50 overall pick, Alex Freeland was a third-round pick, Emil Morales got a top international bonus, Josue De Paula got a lower-to-midrange international bonus, and Jackson Ferris and Zyhir Hope were non-top 100 prospects a year ago when both were acquired from the Cubs for infielder Michael Busch. The Dodgers are so good because they are one of the most efficient franchises in baseball from top to bottom (you could argue for the Rays, Brewers or Guardians, too) and they also have a ton of money.
At Baseball America the Dodgers’ system ranks third overall, behind only the Red Sox and Tigers. Says BA on the Dodgers’ farm: “The organization is balanced from top to bottom but also is hurt by injuries that will keep big league-ready pitchers out for the year.”
Los Angeles ranked ninth last year, and have ranked in the top nine in each of the last six seasons at BA.
Keith Law at The Athletic has the Dodgers’ third overall, and that’s without counting Sasaki, who pitched four years professionally in Japan.
The Mariners and Red Sox were first and second on The Athletic list, coupled with the Dodgers as the only three teams in Law’s top tier of systems.
Law praised the Dodgers infrastructure in his ranking:
They have stayed that way since Andrew Friedman first took over as president of baseball operations, because he has maintained sizable scouting staffs on the amateur, pro, and international sides; built up their R&D department; and brought the people-management style he used in Tampa to the bigger budgets (OK, much bigger budgets) of Los Angeles. Teams that try to do this on the cheap haven’t been able to sustain success like the Dodgers have
More system rankings should drop soon. Baseball Prospectus is publishing its final team prospect list this week, so perhaps a system ranking will follow soon. FanGraphs’ prospect week will come next week after the Super Bowl.
But these three already-released lists give us an idea of where the Dodgers stand, and why.