{"id":12580,"date":"2025-07-15T21:28:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T21:28:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/12580\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T21:28:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T21:28:03","slug":"yankees-are-gushing-over-dax-kilby-their-top-mlb-draft-pick-we-were-holding-our-breath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/12580\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees are gushing over Dax Kilby, their top MLB Draft pick: \u2018We were holding our breath\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

They had eight amateur scouts see the Newnan, Ga., native play. He met with staff from the Yankees\u2019 performance science and mental conditioning departments. He visited their player development facility in Tampa, Fla. The Yankees also met with his family.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how a guy like this is our guy,\u201d said Damon Oppenheimer, vice president of domestic amateur scouting, in a conference call with reporters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Oppenheimer raved about Kilby\u2019s skill set and called him a \u201cpretty easy\u201d pick at No. 39, which came with a slot value of $2,509,500.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the stuff that he hit on, he was athletic,\u201d the scout said. \u201cHe has a major-league body. His swing works real well. He\u2019s got a contact-oriented swing that also has power. It adapts to being able to hit balls in different quadrants.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of that,\u201d Oppenheimer said, \u201che can run. He\u2019s 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\u2019re able to do defensively that he\u2019s going to be able to play shortstop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kilby generated a range of rankings\u00a0among publications that follow the draft closely. The Athletic\u2019s Keith Law ranked him as the No. 62 prospect<\/a>, as did MLB Pipeline, but Baseball America had him at No. 75. ESPN had him at No. 28.<\/p>\n

What accounts for the difference in where the Yankees valued Kilby and where various publications ranked him?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fair question,\u201d Oppenheimer said. \u201cThat\u2019s what the public gets the opportunity to see, is publications and where they have things. Things like that. It\u2019s no different than me studying the hockey draft and I\u2019m reading what they\u2019re saying. That\u2019s where we get our information. But when it comes to the stuff that we\u2019re paid to do and the professionalism that we\u2019re here to have, we obviously just lean heavily into what we\u2019ve done and the work we\u2019ve done and the research we\u2019ve done. \u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThe deep dive is so much further than what a publication is going to have. Where they\u2019re getting their information, I don\u2019t know. Is it from scouts? Is it from a one-time look from where they saw him in the summer and now he\u2019s 20 pounds different? We have a skin in the game where it holds up and there\u2019s a report that shows up and one guy does well and doesn\u2019t do well, and these publications\u2019 rankings, they go away after the draft is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Yankees had been impressed with Kilby for a while and were excited when they had the chance to draft him.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were holding our breath (hoping) it was going to be Dax on our board,\u201d Oppenheimer said.<\/p>\n

What stood out about Kaeden Kent, Jeff Kent\u2019s son\"\"<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Kaeden Kent, 21, played at Texas A&M, and he hits lefty. Yankees executive advisor Brian Sabean was the Giants\u2019 general manager for Jeff Kent\u2019s time in San Francisco. Oppenheimer said the Yankees were able to lean on Sabean\u2019s insight into the Kent family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of knowledge of the intensity of Jeff Kent,\u201d Oppenheimer said. \u201cOnce we met with the kid \u2014 more than once \u2014 we kind of realized that this kid is his own kid. Being raised in a major-league house, we do know that that\u2019s an advantage. They have some knowledge of what\u2019s getting ready to happen and what they need to do. So, it does help a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit different with Kaeden working from the left side and being more of a shortstop,\u201d Oppenheimer said. \u201cHis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Yankees did extensive research on shortstop Dax Kilby, their 18-year-old top pick in the MLB…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,369,99],"class_list":["post-12580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}