Is another 'bridge year' on the horizon for the Red Sox?

The Red Sox might not always have a Bogaerts, Betts, or Bradley in the wings - Rich Gagnon/Getty ImagesBack in 2009, after the Red Sox had been swept from the American League Division Series by the Angels, then-GM Theo Epstein infamously declared 2010 a "bridge year" for the Red Sox. The immediate response fell somewhere between fury and panic before Epstein clarified: the bridge year wasn't about a getting from one period of contention to the next, but about bridging a gap in their farm system. There wasn't much help coming from below, so the Sox had to figure out something else.

It's been a while since the Red Sox have found themselves in such a situation. In late 2013, when Stephen Drew…