First-round decide Dax Kilby expects to signal with the Yankees on Friday afternoon.
Kilby, a high-school shortstop from the Atlanta space, had dedicated to play at Clemson, however on Thursday he was on the Yankees’ facility in Tampa, the place he was set to finish his bodily.
“I’m super excited to get to work,” Kilby stated on an introductory Zoom name.
The Yankees chosen Kilby, 18, with the No. 39 decide in Sunday’s first spherical, securing a participant they recognized as their goal by an exhaustive pre-draft course of.
The sensation was mutual, Kilby stated Thursday, because the infielder out of Newnan Excessive College stated he went into the draft hoping the Yankees would take him.
Kilby met with quite a few groups, however a non-public exercise with the Yankees in Tampa bought him on the group.
Throughout that go to, Kilby hit and labored out on the sector, grew to become impressed by the Yankees’ services and player-development program, and met with a contingent that included Damon Oppenheimer, the group’s vp of home newbie scouting.
“I was the only one here,” Kilby recalled. “I felt like I was very welcomed, and I really loved everything about the Yankees organization while I was down here. Leading up to the draft, I knew that I just wanted to be a part of this organization.”
Kilby batted .495 with 5 dwelling runs, 42 RBI and 15 stolen bases as a senior with Newnan and received the Georgia state 5-A championship. As scouts stuffed the stands for his video games, Kilby realized he had a official likelihood of being drafted.
Requested if it was troublesome to go on Clemson, Kilby stated Thursday, “It definitely was, but as the draft started getting closer and knowing that my name was going to be farther up the draft [board] than I originally thought it would have been, it was a clear no-brainer.”
The 6-2, 190-pound Kilby is the newest high-school shortstop to be drafted within the first spherical by the Yankees, becoming a member of a fraternity that features Derek Jeter, Anthony Volpe and high prospect George Lombard Jr.
Kilby stated he modeled his left-handed swing after these of MLB All-Stars Christian Yelich and Jackson Merrill, and he expressed admiration for Toronto shortstop Bo Bichette.
“He was athletic. He has a major-league body. His swing works real well,” Oppenheimer stated Tuesday of Kilby.
“He’s got a contact-oriented swing that also has power and adapts to being able to hit balls in different quadrants. On top of that, he can run. He’s got good instincts, and what we saw of him at shortstop this year gave us a lot of hope that, with our [player-development] people, … he’s going to be able to play shortstop.”
Kilby shared his want to stay at shortstop, too, saying, “I’m excited to be able to work with all of the top-tier coaching here with the Yankees.”
The Yankees had just one decide within the high 100 on this 12 months’s draft, as they forfeited their second-rounder to signal Max Fried within the offseason.
Within the third spherical, the Yankees used the No. 103 total decide on Texas A&M’s Kaeden Kent, who additionally performs shortstop. Kent, the son of 2000 Nationwide League MVP Jeff Kent, signed with the Yankees for $744,400, in line with MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis.
The decide worth for No. 39 is $2,509,500, in line with MLB.
After he was drafted, Kilby stated Nick Swisher despatched him a congratulatory message on Instagram, whereas supervisor Aaron Boone known as on Wednesday night time to welcome him to the group.
These interactions added to a particular week wherein Kilby was surrounded by household, mates, and his highschool teammates and coaches when he was picked.
“We found out that the Yankees were going to take me probably five picks before it happened,” Kilby stated. “It was just unreal. It’s obviously a moment that every little kid dreams of, especially with the Yankees.”
