The Yankees used their first-round pick on shortstop Dax Kilby, a left-handed hitting shortstop out of Newman High School who debuted as the no. 8 prospect in our post-deadline top 30 update.
An athletic infielder who has a patient eye and excellent bat-to-ball skills, his journey to getting drafted is not what you’d expect for a prep shortstop.
With no college offers or draft notoreity in high school, Kilby has to outwork everyone around him to develop more physical tools and become the kind of player whom scouts would start taking notice of.
He showed up to the MLB Draft Combine with elite speed and improved bat speed, and now with the Yankees, the young infielder is laser-focused on becoming the best version of himself possible.
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Dax Kilby’s Underdog Story Has a New Chapter With the Yankees
High school players face a tough decision when they enter the MLB Draft as they hold exclusive negotiations with the team who selects them.
If selected in the first-round, you can still forgo the professional route and go play college baseball to even further improve your draft stock and get a much higher signing bonus.
That comes with the risk that your stock decreases in college, and literal teenagers have to grapple with a decision that could cost them millions of dollars.
Committed to play at Clemson, we asked Dax Kilby why he chose instead to go pro right out of high school:
“It’s every little kids dream to be a first-round pick, especially to the Yankees…I don’t know who can say no to that”
Kilby also noted that the Yankees were the team he wanted to end up with during the draft process, and the organization had paid attention to his rapid ascent as a prospect.
As mentioned earlier, it was an unlikely journey for Dax Kilby, who didn’t garner much collegiate attention early into his high school career.
Rigrous training would allow him to transform into a stronger hitter with better athletic tools, and one of the key improvements came with a massive uptick in bat speed.
Kilby’s game is centered around making contact and working walks, so why were bat speed gains so important to him?
“Everyone wants to hit the ball hard…more often you hit the ball hard the more hits you’ll more than likely have. It’s a very key piece to anyone’s game to be able to hit the ball hard.”
Five hitters are hitting over .300 since 2023; only Luis Arraez is doing so without an Exit Velocity north of 90 MPH.
Dax Kilby has displayed some solid raw power early into his pro career, hitting two baseballs at 108 and 108.9 MPH with just one strikeout.
That last part is definitely making the teenage hitter happy; when asked what fans should know about Kilby, he remarked that he “hates” striking out, wanting to put a ball in play at the end of every at-bat.
If his hit tool and raw power both develop in his time with the Yankees, he could become a polished and well-rounded hitter who positions himself at the top of a lineup for years to come.
The modern contact hitter isn’t one who hits .300 with little to no slug, it’s one who has the raw power to rack up hits but also deposit a pitch to hit into the seats.
One of the players who Dax Kilby models his game after, Christian Yelich, is a prime example of what today’s hit kings look like.
A career .286 hitter, Christian Yelich has two batting titles and is 12th among active hitters in total hits (1,709).
Yelich’s career exploded when he began hitting for more power, but the hitterish tendencies of working walks, avoiding strike outs, and having a high average were all still there.
He has never had a season with an average EV below 90 MPH, and Dax Kilby models his swing after that kind of player with the hopes of also bringing that well-rounded approach to the table.
The Yankees selected a smart hitter who had to outwork everyone around him to become an unlikely first-round pick, and that intelligent baseball mind with projectable tools could produce a quality big-leaguer.
Side note: we asked Dax Kilby if he’d rather try and tackle Giancarlo Stanton when he was a football star in high school or try and stop Aaron Judge on the way to a rim when he was a basketball star in high school.
He wisely chose to stay out the way of both. Smart man.
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