Prospect Pipeline

The San Francisco Giants may have won the 2014 World Series, but the season belonged to the American League Champion Kansas City Royals.

General manager Dayton Moore’s vision of building a winning organization based on strong scouting and player development finally was validated, as the Royals introduced a collection of homegrown talents to a national audience last October.

Few teams have been as busy this offseason as the Miami Marlins.

The decision to extend Giancarlo Stanton with a historic 13-year, $325 million contract thrust the Marlins into win-now mode, and it wasn’t long before the club began to aggressively retool its big league roster around the 25-year-old slugger.

However, building a strong supporting cast around Stanton meant blowing up the farm system, and so the Marlins were forced to part with top prospects.

The Philadelphia Phillies haven’t launched a full-on rebuilding process, at least not yet, but the organization appears to be headed in that direction based on recent trades.

The Atlanta Braves system may be weak, but the cupboard is far from bare.

Twenty-year-old second baseman Jose Peraza's exciting tools and advanced feel for the game have him on the fast track to the major leagues, while the team's top prospect from 2014, right-hander Lucas Sims, seems poised for a bounce-back campaign.  

Marcus Stroman’s graduation to big league starter last season put a temporary dent in the Toronto Blue Jays' system, but right-hander Aaron Sanchez, lefty Daniel Norris and center fielder Dalton Pompey each picked up the slack in his absence, as all three prospects finished the year in the major leagues.

Despite graduating a host of players to the big leagues last season, the Boston Red Sox enter 2015 with one of the finest collections of talent in the sport thanks to an aggressive draft strategy and outstanding player development.

On Monday we learned the Pittsburgh Pirates have won negotiating rights to Korean shortstop Jung-Ho Kang, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.

The New York Yankees’ quietly good offseason continued Friday, as the team acquired right-handed pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, first baseman Garrett Jones and right-handed pitching prospect Domingo German from the Miami Marlins, according to Marc Carig of Newsday.

When the Atlanta Braves traded outfielder Jason Heyward to St. Louis in November, it signaled that the club might be initiating a rebuild.

Many of baseball’s top prospects are spending the offseason playing in winter leagues in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, hoping to get a head start on the 2014 season and improve their chances of cracking an Opening Day roster. 

As it is usually the case given the time of year, the prospect pool between the four leagues is heavy on hitters. Unfortunately, the crop of talent in the leagues this winter is fairly weak and features fewer big-name prospects than previous years.