Well from what I remember they had to put one of the two in the deal for Sale. Moncada had one very good year where he hit over 300 with 25 bombs but he’s struggled since, hit 212 last year and has had more injury issues then Beni, who just cashed in and is coming off a all star season. I just dont think Dombrowski left the farm in bad shape as people are making out was more my point. Feels like the top 30 is 70/30 him vs Bloom.
Both Kopech and Moncada were in the Sale trade, yeah. Moncada was very good from 2019-2021. The year you're thinking of was 2019 when he put up 5.5 fWAR, but he also had a 4 win year in 2021. If you prorate 2020 to a full season his 2020 wasn't bad either, 3 fWAR. His 2017, 2018, and 2022 were all mediocre. Benintendi had a great year in 2018 and a solid one in 2022 but otherwise has been middling.
Between 2017 and the present (again, prorating 2020 out as a full season) Benintendi averaged 2 fWAR/year while Moncada has averaged 2.61 fWAR/year. Moncada has definitely been the better player over that span, although I'll absolutely agree that the expectations for Moncada were higher and that he has fallen shorter vs. his potential relative to Benintendi. I don't think Benintendi + Kopech was going to bring back Sale, but that doesn't really factor into the argument as to whether Dombrowski kept the good players and traded the duds. Moncada may not have played up to his potential, but he definitely hasn't been a dud.
I don't have all of the farm system rankings from Dombrowski's final year, but generally the Sox system was near the bottom of most lists. At the end of the 2019 season, bleacherreport had the Red Sox as dead last.
Looking through the 2022 fangraphs prospect ranking lists, of the Red Sox top 30 Dombrowski is responsible for #s 1, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 29 and 30 while Bloom is responsible for 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 14, 15, 16, 17, 23, 24, and 28. Now the numbers have surely shifted a bit since then, but as of this ranking that's 16/30 for Dombrowski, although the numbers are a bit weighted toward the bottom of the list. Considering that Bloom has had about a year less of time to work with and that Bloom's acquisitions have had significantly less development time than Dombrowskis, I think the fact that it's a 50/50 split does validate Dombrowski's reputation a bit. Of course, Dombrowski was also dealing with some factors outside of his control. Daniel Flores' tragic death, Noah Song being stuck with military commitments, and the loss of the 2016-2017 international signing period could easily have us looking at Dombrowski's tenure differently if they had gone differently.
Also, I completely agree that things look better for Dombrowski now than they did when he left. If any or all of Casas, Bello, and Rafaela hit then that'll definitely change things.
However, it's pretty incontrovertible that the Sox farm has not produced much if any significant talent for several years, and that gap has left the team in the difficult position now where it has faced the decision of trying to retain franchise players hitting free agency at a time when the team doesn't have the young talent to easily offset the expenses. In a year or three that might look very different (partly because of Dombrowski's additions, partly because of Bloom's) but as of now the problem is what it is.