In hindsight, it appears the next two rounds of scouting represented a significant step in that direction. The selections of three local players to the All-Star Game on Sunday — Devers, Tanner Houck and Jarren Duran — drove that message home.
“It’s a testament to the organization,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Sometimes we get caught up in trying to be somebody else or emulate other organizations. (The All-Star selections) remind us that the Red Sox did things the right way for a while.”
Houck was selected in the first round of the 2017 draft; the Sox also selected Kutter Crawford in the 16th round that year. Duran was selected in the seventh round in 2018, a draft that also produced first-round pick Triston Casas and 23rd-round pick Ryan Fernandez — a right-hander who excels in the Cardinals’ bullpen.
Between those two events, the team’s international amateur scouting department signed Ceddanne Rafaela and Brayan Bello.
So far, 12 players from the 2017 and 2018 drafts have been named major league All-Stars. The Sox are the only team to have selected and signed multiple players — an especially impressive feat considering the modest talent that emerged from that two-year span, and the fact that they also got Crawford and Casas.
“If you get two above-average regulars — position players or pitchers — in a year, that puts you in the elite category, relative to other teams, in the draft,” said Mike Rikard, the Sox’s vice president of scouting, who was the team’s director of amateur scouting from 2015-19. “And that’s what we’ve been able to do.”
The Sox had Houck at the top of their list in 2017, but were confident they had a good chance of landing him with the 24th pick. Many teams viewed him as a future reliever given his lack of a third pitch beyond his exceptional sinker/slider combination. The Sox, in a scouting process led by area scout Todd Gold, believed he had potential well beyond that, though it would take time to get there.
“In retrospect, we were pretty confident in his pick,” Rikard said. “We had strong convictions. Our (scouting) scores were extremely aggressive relative to the industry consensus on Tanner.”
Houck, according to Baseball-Reference.com’s calculations, leads all pitchers in the 2017 draft in career value with 8.4 WAR. Crawford (4.5) ranks sixth, his emergence at Florida Gulf Coast University as a third-day pick meeting area scout Willie Romay’s requirements.
“It’s the steps in the draft process that make or break a draft,” Rikard said. “When you can sign a guy like (Crawford) in the 16th round, credit goes to the scout in the area. Willie projected he was going to be a major league starter the moment he saw him.”
Both pitchers made their debuts in July 2017, days after Rafaela signed as a surprisingly undersized power ball from Curacao for $10,000, and Bello accepted a $28,000 bonus from the Dominican Republic.
“It’s great to be here today and see where we are,” Rafaela said. “People who sign for that kind of money don’t have time for failure. You always have to improve.”
In 2018, the Sox debated whether to use their first-round pick on Casas, a high school first baseman with immense offensive potential, or Clemson outfielder Seth Beer, one of the best college hitters.
“The first choice is more of a personal or organizational choice,” Rikard said. “As a recruiting manager, you’re trying to be on top of all the information. You’re a conductor, a maestro, trying to balance all these different rhythms, opinions and information.”
“I was kind of going through this conundrum of trying to make sure we weren’t risk averse with the high school first baseman, and balancing that with what we assumed was the safety or likelihood of a college hitter who had produced at that rate to that point.
“I had a few sleepless nights before I was selected, but my instincts kept pushing me back to Triston.”
While the dilemma Casas faced the Sox with their first pick (No. 26) because of the team’s certainty it would only have one chance to get him, Duran was less clear.
His college performance didn’t match his tools. Justin Horowitz, a Southern California scout, saw a player who hit average at Long Beach State but, despite his physical strength, didn’t hit the ball hard. He saw a player with elite speed whose raw technique still allowed him to put up surprisingly modest numbers as a base stealer, and whose role as a second baseman didn’t take advantage of his running ability.
“(Duran) really stood out throughout our process as far as the athleticism, the tools and the makeup information that Justin gave us,” Rikard said. “We didn’t really know where to take him, but we were pretty confident we didn’t want to lose him.”
The Sox remained patient and picked up Duran in the seventh round, hoping his unrefined tools could eventually be sharpened in a way — especially given his roaring motor on the field — that would yield a player with game-changing traits.
Six years later, Duran and Casas have lived through a six-year period, and seven years for Houck, Crawford, Rafaela and Bello. That timeline is a reminder of the long road to rebuilding a recruiting system — an effort that requires the combined efforts of scouting, player development and, most importantly, the commitment of the players themselves — while proving that a single moment in time during that span doesn’t necessarily reveal the true state of a prospect pool.
The wave that emerged from this seemingly dry spell is likely to collide with another that is beginning to emerge on the horizon from the upper levels, with Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony and Kyle Teel. A core has not only formed, it is growing.
Sunday’s All-Star selections signal the promise of what the Sox hope will be a continued pattern.
“It’s a very, very exciting time,” Rikard said. “We knew (rebuilding the farm system) wasn’t going to happen overnight, and we know we still have a lot of work to do. Next week (at the 2024 draft) will be another step in that process, and we hope to continue to add more talent to the farm system.”
Peter Abraham and Julian McWilliams of Globe Staff contributed to this report.
You can contact Alex Speier at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.
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