Baseball Prospectus Ranks Dodgers Farm System 3rd

Impact Potential at the top

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Grant Holmes, Joc Pederson, Julio Urias, Corey Seager. Oh my! Baseball Prospectus, one of the best run prospect bases available to the public, has been busy releasing the annual textbook that they put together, and today they ranked the Dodgers farm system 3rd in the annual organizational rankings. This is the highest rankings the Dodgers have attained since the days of Andy LaRoche, Clayton Kershaw, James Loney, and Scott Elbert.

The ranking is a promising sign for the second tier of prospects behind the big four that everybody talks about. Alex Verdugo is called a “quality high school bat” and is one of the best bets as far as Dodger second rounders go in a long time, they lauded the drafting of Grant Holmes and AJ Vanegas, which is a strong development, everybody knows the Dodgers could use realistic late inning upside relievers.

Chris Reed, Zach Lee, and Chris Anderson are considered mid rotation starters by the site, which is going to be a necessity this upcoming season, one of Reed, Lee or Anderson are basically a lock to see playing time this year given the health issues Ryu, McCarthy and especially Anderson present.

I dare you to find a reputable source that doesn’t project Corey Seager as a regular infielder. Julio Urias is full of potential, Joc Pederson’s floor seems to be higher than many are saying because of his on base skills and passable to acceptable defense in CF. The top end of the system is in fantastic shape, Seager ranks 7th on the top 101 list, Urias, Pederson, and Holmes are also on the top 101 with the former 2 a lock to be in the top 30. We know that, at least one of them are likely to make an impact this upcoming season, but to have such strong reviews centered around the Lee’s of the system and similarly, the Schebler’s/Sweeney’s of the system is a promising thing.

The hope is that once Pederson finally graduates, Verdugo will help become a high upside type prospect to fill that void, and this isn’t even counting the possibility of Yadier Alvarez (who would rank 58th on Kiley McDaniel’s prospect list), Yoan Moncada (who would rank 8th behind Lucas Giolito), or any of the number of Cuban defectors that have become available recently.

The disparity of prospect lists is always an intriguing storyline because Keith Law ranked the overall system 14th which is just slightly above average, the difference being how much you believe in the second tier of prospects, the Anderson’s and Sweeney’s of the world, but it still has impact potential at the top and is growing in depth. Some of the top 4 prospect could get hurt or never reach their 75th percentile scenario (spoiler alert: some of them won’t ever come close to their ideal scenarios), but that’s the same of every farm system, and the Dodgers farm system is one of the best in the game.