Baseball farm system rankings are a mix of art and science, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel tried a different approach for his latest crack at ranking each team’s set of prospects.
McDaniel evaluated prospects by putting a dollar amount on them. The number was “what a team would bid for each prospect if he was at auction and the team was trying to value its six to seven controlled years in the big leagues before the player hit free agency.”
By coming up with the number of prospects with notable value and an overall dollar amount to each farm system, he showed how top-heavy and deep a farm system is. The White Sox, who ranked eighth, are apparently top-heavy but not deep (which is a trend in these rankings).
Overall, McDaniel found that there are 1,182 prospects worth $6.53 billion of surplus value in the minor leagues.
He described the White Sox system (which he valued at $251 million) as one with elite prospects but not much depth. But that’s nothing new. Few teams can match the foursome of Luis Robert, Michael Kopech, Andrew Vaughn and Nick Madrigal. After that, there aren’t many high-upside talents in the system.
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