It's not always cut-and-dried as to whether a player should be categorized as "home grown", because a player may have spent five years in another team's minor league system and then traded to your team during his last year of AAA before getting promoted to the majors. So technically he made it to your team as a promotion from your team's minor league system, but was he really "home grown"? For the sake of discussion, I'm going to say YES to that question, that as long as the player ends up on your major league club via promotion from your minor league system, that qualifies as "home grown" (unless they had major-league time with a previous club). That being said, here are the Sox' major league players - the bolded are "home grown".
C - Vazquez
1b - Moreland
2b - Chavis
3b - Devers
SS - Bogaerts
LF - Benintendi
CF - Bradley
RF - Betts
DH - Martinez
C - Leon
IF - Nunez
IF - Pedroia*
IF - Pearce
U - Holt*
IF - Travis
IF - Lin
SP - Sale
SP - Price
SP - Porcello
SP - Rodriguez
SP - Eovaldi
SP - Velazquez
RP - Walden
RP - Brasier
RP - Hembree
RP - Workman
RP - Barnes
RP - Thornburg
RP - Weber
So the pitching staff is mostly *not* home grown, but the position players are. And the starting lineup - when Vazquez is in - is 7/9ths home grown. Look at that group of young (or young-ish) home grown position players: Vazquez, Chavis, Devers, Bogaerts, Benintendi, Bradley, and Betts. That's a very exciting and talented return on the investment in the farm system the of the past half dozen years or so.
Potentially coming through the pipeline in the next few years (there will always be surprises):
3b Dalbec (AA Portland)
LHP Hernandez (AA Portland)
SS Chatham (AA Portland)
LHP Groome (injured)
RHP Feltman (AA Portland)
CF Duran (A Salem)
Obviously not all these guys will make it, and right now some aren't putting up good numbers. But the talent is there. And for some of them, their positions in Boston are blocked, like Dalbec and Chatham. So who knows what will happen. The point is that the Sox' farm system has produced a bunch of very very good major league talent the past half-dozen years and that's exciting to see.
Edited to include Walden.
C - Vazquez
1b - Moreland
2b - Chavis
3b - Devers
SS - Bogaerts
LF - Benintendi
CF - Bradley
RF - Betts
DH - Martinez
C - Leon
IF - Nunez
IF - Pedroia*
IF - Pearce
U - Holt*
IF - Travis
IF - Lin
SP - Sale
SP - Price
SP - Porcello
SP - Rodriguez
SP - Eovaldi
SP - Velazquez
RP - Walden
RP - Brasier
RP - Hembree
RP - Workman
RP - Barnes
RP - Thornburg
RP - Weber
So the pitching staff is mostly *not* home grown, but the position players are. And the starting lineup - when Vazquez is in - is 7/9ths home grown. Look at that group of young (or young-ish) home grown position players: Vazquez, Chavis, Devers, Bogaerts, Benintendi, Bradley, and Betts. That's a very exciting and talented return on the investment in the farm system the of the past half dozen years or so.
Potentially coming through the pipeline in the next few years (there will always be surprises):
3b Dalbec (AA Portland)
LHP Hernandez (AA Portland)
SS Chatham (AA Portland)
LHP Groome (injured)
RHP Feltman (AA Portland)
CF Duran (A Salem)
Obviously not all these guys will make it, and right now some aren't putting up good numbers. But the talent is there. And for some of them, their positions in Boston are blocked, like Dalbec and Chatham. So who knows what will happen. The point is that the Sox' farm system has produced a bunch of very very good major league talent the past half-dozen years and that's exciting to see.
Edited to include Walden.
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