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2011: 1 – Kansas City Royals, 2 – Toronto Blue Jays, 3 – Atlanta Braves, 18 – Seattle Mariners
The Kansas City Royals start off the argument of whether having a top farm system translates to success. The Royals had the strongest farm system in 2011, followed by the Blue Jays and Braves. It’s always nice when the first team in your argument is one that saw resounding success within just a couple of years.
After a few middling years with a 71-91 and 72-90 record, things would take a nice turn in 2013 for Kansas City. They wouldn’t make the playoffs but would have their first winning season since 2003. All their top talent was coming up and starting to make an impact, and it would show in 2014 and 2015.
Salvador Perez, Lorenzo Cain, Alcides Escobar, Alex Gordon, and a stellar bullpen led by Greg Holland, Wade Davis, and Kelvin Herrera would get them to game seven of the World Series. They would lose in 2014 but come through in 2015 with their first World Series Ring since 1985. This is 100% success and return on building a strong farm system.
Then we have the Toronto Blue Jays. They wouldn’t find as much success as the Royals but would make the ALCS back-to-back years in 2015 and 2016, led by Josh Donaldson. He didn’t come up in their system, but they used the strength of the minor league depth to trade for Donaldson… so close enough. The only reason they didn’t make it any further in the playoffs was that they lost to the Royals in 2015.
We then come to the Atlanta Braves who have been good, year in and year out it seems since the early 90’s. They would find the playoffs right away, before losing in the infamous infield fly wild card game in 2012. They would lose early again in 2013 in the division series, but had 94 and 96 wins, respectively.
Then we have the Mariners who finished 67-95 in 2011 with the 18th ranked farm system. The Seattle Mariners would finally have a winning season in 2014 (three years later), but it was not enough to make the playoffs.