The New York Yankees did extensive research on shortstop Dax Kilby, their 18-year-old top pick in the MLB Draft.

They had eight amateur scouts see the Newnan, Ga., native play. He met with staff from the Yankees’ performance science and mental conditioning departments. He visited their player development facility in Tampa, Fla. The Yankees also met with his family.

“That’s how a guy like this is our guy,” said Damon Oppenheimer, vice president of domestic amateur scouting, in a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Oppenheimer raved about Kilby’s skill set and called him a “pretty easy” pick at No. 39, which came with a slot value of $2,509,500.

“A lot of the stuff that he hit on, he was athletic,” the scout said. “He has a major-league body. His swing works real well. He’s got a contact-oriented swing that also has power. It adapts to being able to hit balls in different quadrants.”

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound Kilby hit .495 with five home runs, 42 RBIs and 15 stolen bases in his senior year at Newnan High School.

“On top of that,” Oppenheimer said, “he can run. He’s got good instincts. What we saw of him at shortstop this year gave us a lot of hope that with our (player development) people and what they’re able to do defensively that he’s going to be able to play shortstop.”

Kilby generated a range of rankings among publications that follow the draft closely. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him as the No. 62 prospect, as did MLB Pipeline, but Baseball America had him at No. 75. ESPN had him at No. 28.

What accounts for the difference in where the Yankees valued Kilby and where various publications ranked him?

“It’s a fair question,” Oppenheimer said. “That’s what the public gets the opportunity to see, is publications and where they have things. Things like that. It’s no different than me studying the hockey draft and I’m reading what they’re saying. That’s where we get our information. But when it comes to the stuff that we’re paid to do and the professionalism that we’re here to have, we obviously just lean heavily into what we’ve done and the work we’ve done and the research we’ve done. …

“The deep dive is so much further than what a publication is going to have. Where they’re getting their information, I don’t know. Is it from scouts? Is it from a one-time look from where they saw him in the summer and now he’s 20 pounds different? We have a skin in the game where it holds up and there’s a report that shows up and one guy does well and doesn’t do well, and these publications’ rankings, they go away after the draft is over.”

The Yankees had been impressed with Kilby for a while and were excited when they had the chance to draft him.

“We were holding our breath (hoping) it was going to be Dax on our board,” Oppenheimer said.

What stood out about Kaeden Kent, Jeff Kent’s son

The Yankees drafted Kaeden Kent out of Texas A&M at No. 103. (Jake Crandall / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

The Yankees took shortstop Kaeden Kent in the third round with the No. 103 pick. It was their second pick of the draft. They lost their second-round pick as a competitive balance tax penalty for signing lefty Max Fried, whom the Atlanta Braves had given the qualifying offer.

Kent is the son of Jeff Kent, a five-time All-Star and the all-time leader in home runs among second basemen with 377.

Kaeden Kent, 21, played at Texas A&M, and he hits lefty. Yankees executive advisor Brian Sabean was the Giants’ general manager for Jeff Kent’s time in San Francisco. Oppenheimer said the Yankees were able to lean on Sabean’s insight into the Kent family.

“We have a lot of knowledge of the intensity of Jeff Kent,” Oppenheimer said. “Once we met with the kid — more than once — we kind of realized that this kid is his own kid. Being raised in a major-league house, we do know that that’s an advantage. They have some knowledge of what’s getting ready to happen and what they need to do. So, it does help a lot.”

Oppenheimer said he spoke to Jeff Kent only once during the process, at a Cape Cod League game in which Kaeden was playing. Oppenheimer said there were similarities between the younger Kent and his father.

“It’s a little bit different with Kaeden working from the left side and being more of a shortstop,” Oppenheimer said. “His intensity level might be the one where they might be a little bit the same. Wants to win, is going to do everything he can to be the best version of himself. I think that side of it, you learn from being around a competitor like his dad was.”