BOSTON — When Baseball America released its top 100 prospects Monday, you had to scan all the way down to the 80s to find the first Red Sox in Jay Groome.

Boston had just two prospects on the list, and Groome's 83rd ranking was the lowest for the club's top prospect in the 28-year history of those rankings.

This fits with the notion that, since taking over as president of baseball operations in August 2015, Dave Dombrowski has converted the team's strengths in the farm system into major league reinforcement. The organization lacks high-end talent near the major leagues thanks to the trades of Yoan Moncada, Michael Kopech and Manuel Margot over the past two years.

But is this necessarily a bad thing?

Farm system rankings occur in a vacuum; prospects graduate into major leaguers with sufficient time in the bigs and cease existing, for all intents and purposes, to those who rank the minors.

This is the context of Boston's plummet in Baseball America's organizational rankings, from second in 2014 to 14th heading into last season. (This season's rankings, which figure to be lower still, haven't come out yet.)

But a broader view of the organization as a whole reveals considerable reason to be more optimistic. You know what would make Boston's system look much better? If Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers were both still part of it, instead of rapidly climbing the minor-league ladder to become precocious major league contributors the past two seasons.

Ranking the top talent in organizations under the age of 25 would be much kinder to the Red Sox, as few teams could boast the same depth of major-league talent there as Boston. In addition to Benintendi and Devers, the Sox also have Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts and Eduardo Rodriguez as established major leaguers who are not yet 25 years old.

What does all this mean? Well, last week's rookie development program in Boston gives a pretty good idea of what fans can expect in the short term. The program, designed to give players on the cusp of the majors a chance to grow accustomed to the city, to Fenway Park and to the media, lacked the high-end names of the recent past.

Groome is too far away from the majors, so infielder Michael Chavis was the standard bearer for Boston's system — even as his ceiling is likely below that of predecessors such as Betts, Benintendi and Devers.

Beyond Boston's top position-player prospect, these Red Sox rookies don't offer an abundance of intrigue. Jalen Beeks and Mike Shawaryn could be back-end starters or middle relievers. Chad De La Guerra might be a big-league utility man. You don't have to squint too much to envision Josh Ockimey as a big-league first baseman, but he's not exactly on the path there just yet. There is time for these players to outgrow these prescribed limitations, but organizations would be unwise to bet on it.

What the Sox do have in the upper levels, especially on the pitching side of things, is depth. Brian Johnson, Hector Velazquez and Roenis Elias all have some major-league experience as starters.

Austin Maddox and Ben Taylor got some big-league work as relievers last year, with Ty Buttrey, Chandler Shepherd and Bobby Poyner getting close just in case. Marco Hernandez, Tzu-Wei Lin and Deven Marrero all saw the bigs as middle infielders last year. (The system is shallow in the outfield, especially considering the unlikelihood of a costly call-up for Rusney Castillo.)

These are not the players you build a roster around; fortunately for the Red Sox, they already have those guys in place at the major-league level.

The high-end talent in the Boston system is farther down, where flaws are still fixable and it's easier to dream on the potential. The consensus best prospect in the system, Groome is 19 and has thrown 62 pro innings. Last year's draft class includes a bevy of intriguing prospects, like first-round pitcher Tanner Houck, outfielder Cole Brannen and pitcher Alex Scherff. Even the Sox admit it's too early to tell what they have.

"There's a lot to be excited about. It's still early," Ben Crockett, vice president of player development, said, noting that only two members of the 2017 class made it even as far as Single-A Greenville. "We still have a long ways to go. There's a lot of development left to be done."

(The quick peak in 2016 and longer valley in 2017 for 2016 draft pick Bobby Dalbec is perhaps informative; it's imprudent to jump to conclusions, one way or the other, so quickly in a prospect's professional career.)

The issue for Boston, then, is bridging the gap between its current roster and the next real infusion of talent. It's figuring out how to keep its under-25 position-player core beyond its initial contracts and how to replace the starting pitchers that will be departing in free agency over the next two seasons.

Answering those questions will determine just how long this Red Sox competitive window stays open.