Not long ago, we had a rollicking farm system. No more.

Last winter, rawboned OF Esteval Florial generally ranked among the top 5 prospects in the bubbling, gurgling Yankee wellspring. With high expectations, the lightning-legged Florial began 2018 at Class A Tampa, where he'd finished the previous summer. It wasn't pretty. He didn't hit, hurt his hand, missed two months, then returned for the Arizona Fall League and didn't hit again. You'd think he'd drop a notch or two in the updated rankings. Nope. He rose. Baseball America now ranks Florial the top Yankee prospect, over first runner-up, pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga, who showed promise in his MLB debut before hurting his shoulder, which is a thing for him.

Listen: I'm not ripping on Florial: he's only 21 and simply needs a break-out season. (That's the one-size-fits-all refrain of prospect-watchers: "needs a break-out season.") But remember that abundant Yankee farm system of 2017, the one that was going to resurrect the franchise? It's gone. We traded it for Todd Frazier, Sonny Gray, Zach Britton, Andrew McCutcheon, Jaime Garcia, Lance Lynn, Brandon Drury and JA Happ. Check out the following chart, prepared by Fangraphs. Read it and weep:

Reread it and re-weep. It wasn't that long ago when we battled Atlanta for the top spot. Now, our Baseball America Top 10 list brims with Single A arms in their pre-Tommy John incarnations and fleet-footed outfielders in the Gulf Coast League, where everybody is a future star. 

Okay, I know what you're thinking: One reason why the Yankee system plummeted so far is that we elevated Gleyber Torres, Greg Bird, Gary Sanchez, Miguel Andujar and Luis Severino to the show. (By the way, none has yet proven a sure thing - with Bird and Sanchez facing murky futures.) Also, my list of trades conveniently left out David Robertson and Giancarlo Tartabull Stanton - valuable players with crapola contracts. They weren't all Sonny Grays. (And, hey, maybe we'll score a decent prospect for Sonny!)

But what saddens me is that, back in 2017, I thought the Yankees had finally turned the corner By combining their money advantage with a commitment to the farm system, we would have it both ways: A winning team and top tier system. We'd do it like all dynasties do - refresh our system by trading elders for prospects, and letting the kids compete in spring training. (Last spring, we did just that at 3B, and Miguel Andujar emerged as a potentially generational star.) But this year, instead of Tyler Wade and Thairo Estrada, we'll see Troy Tulowitzi, age 34. 

Likewise, we'll be back to watching retreads in Scranton and even Trenton. And when holes emerge in the mothership - they always do - we will drain the system dry for more oldsters. I can already see Florial flying out the window for a half-season of a name I will someday add to the list of Yankee sighs. We have the 10th worst system in the majors, but more money than God. So... what are we going to do? Spend our money or bleed-out?