“It’s bittersweet is the best way to put it,” said Red Sox assistant general manager Eddie Romero, who was in charge of the international scouting department that accumulated three of the four players (Yoan Moncada, Luis Alexander Basabe, Victor Diaz) sent to the White Sox, and who talked to Moncada after the deal became official.

The promise in the coming few years is immense. But the sense of an altered organizational landscape is real after so many players who’d been scouted, developed, and then blossomed were scattered to new organizations.

As the Red Sox took stock of their reconfigured roster, the front office members who had seen the minor leaguers develop to the point where they could anchor deals for Chris Sale and Tyler Thornburg felt both elation and motivation.


Signing Moncada, said Romero, “was a different kind of recruitment. It took you to some faraway places and there were a lot of intricacies involved in this acquisition that weren’t in others.

“Because of that, you become a little bit closer to the player than you normally do. Over time, we become close. I’ll always be a huge fan of his and always root for him except when he plays us. But at the same time, he’s such a great kid, a special talent, and I wish nothing but the best for him, while at the same time being very happy about what we’ve got in return.

“That’s why we do it. We do it to help our team win at the big league level and to provide value that our president can make our team better with. That has a direct impact and I’m very proud of the department over the last few years, what we’ve been able to obtain, because of the incredible job our scouts have done.”


Similarly, there was a sense of pride in the people who were involved in the domestic draft that yielded Michael Kopech (a first-rounder in 2014, at a time when many clubs evaluated him as so raw that they pegged him no higher than the second round) and, perhaps most impressively, the three players who went to Milwaukee for Thornburg.

Scout Jon Adkins pounded the table for Travis Shaw in the ninth round of the 2011 draft. Demond Smith turned in Mauricio Dubon, an obscure shortstop who moved from Honduras to the US in high school to pursue a baseball career, as a gut-feel target whom the Sox took in the 26th round in 2013. Ray Fagnant identified Josh Pennington as a target when he saw him get 17 swings and misses on an 88-90-m.p.h. fastball in a showcase game, and made the case for the Sox to take him in the 29th round in 2014, even after the righthander had blown out his elbow in his senior year of high school.

All three players — much like Diaz and Basabe — developed value far beyond that with which they entered the organization. And in that regard, there is a sense of optimism that the Red Sox now can start the process of replenishing the system, their scouts emboldened to start identifying the next wave of talent.

“It’s very gratifying,” said director of pro scouting Gus Quattlebaum, who was assistant director of amateur scouting for the four drafted players traded Tuesday. “We’re going to continue to follow them, just because we like them as people.


“But [the fact that Sox scouts identified the players] tells us we can do this again. [Dave Dombrowski] kind of touched on that: We’ve lost a lot of our [front office] teammates who were part of that, who scouted those guys and made decisions in the draft room, but we still have all our scouts who were here when we did that. I think that’s an important part of the equation to do that again.”

Romero said the domestic and international scouts alike recognize their mission going forward.

“I feel like our international scouts are so dedicated to the Red Sox,” he said. “They’re extremely hard-working guys. They take so much pride in their job. That’s our next challenge.

“With [director of amateur scouting Mike Rikard] and I, we’ve talked about it: It’s time to get to work and find some more pieces.”

If they do, then more fascinating days such as Tuesday will remain possible for the Red Sox.