Sunday night marked the beginning of the 2025 MLB Draft, and the Yankees welcomed two new picks to their system: Georgia high school shortstop Dax Kilby in the first round and Texas A&M shortstop Kaeden Kent in the third. Draft rules limited the Yanks to just those two players on Day 1, as they lost a second-rounder (and a supplemental fourth-rounder) for signing Max Fried this past offseason. All the same, seeing the next generation of Yankees join the organization marked a welcome distraction from
the sluggish first-half finale, and 17 more Baby Bombers joined the ranks on Monday to complete the class.
To help conveniently track all of the Yankees’ picks — from the selection process to any known eventual signing news — I’ve assembled this tracker that will be regularly updated throughout July. The players’ names are linked to the Pinstripe Alley stories about their draft selections. If available, I’ve also included their Instagram handles if you have any interest in following them.
Draft pick signing news can be a slow process and team assignments might be even fuzzier, but we’ll do our best to keep you posted. Players have until 5:00 PM ET on August 1st to sign unless they’re college seniors who have already used up their years of eligibility. As always, give us a shout in the comments section of this post if you see any news that needs to be added.
Note: Teams are allotted $150,000 per pick for each selection from Rounds 11-20. This doesn’t count toward their total bonus pool, though they are permitted to use any leftover bonus funds to increase their offers beyond $150,000 to these players.
Post-draft updates
7/17 (1): Now that we’ve had a moment to breathe, how about a whole slew of draft updates? Eight of the Yankees’ 19 draft have signed already, another is on the verge of signing, and five more have seemingly signed as well. We’ll go through them by bullet point; note that unless signing bonus is mentioned, it has not been revealed.
- Most notably, first-round pick Dax Kilby should sign on Friday the 18th. The 18-year-old met with the media over Zoom and talked about it, saying that he was thrilled to get started. A physical seems to be the last hurdle.
#Yankees first-round pick Dax Kilby says he expects to sign with NY tomorrow afternoon. He's going through physicals today and can't wait to get to work.
— Max Goodman (@MaxTGoodman) July 17, 2025
"I'm beyond excited to be a part of this great organization ... the Yankees are the pinnacle of Major League Baseball." pic.twitter.com/4yCUOIcrlY
- This is the most straightforward: MLB.com’s Jim Callis has third-rounder Kaeden Kent, the Yankees’ second-highest pick, signing at slot for $744,400.
3rd-rder Kaeden Kent signs w/@Yankees for $744,400 (full slot 103 value). @AggieBaseball SS, son of Jeff & similarly profiles as an offensive 2B, could be an average hitter with power to match, high baseball IQ, 2024 postseason hero. @MLBDraft pic.twitter.com/D0ecRY8flg
— Jim Callis (@jimcallisMLB) July 17, 2025
- Fourth-round Pico Kohn has signed, per Mississippi State on Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
- Bronx native/seventh-rounder Richie Bonomolo Jr. has signed, per the University of Alabama on Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
- CTV News spoke with ninth-rounder Blake Gillespie, who told them that he had signed.
.@BlakeGillespi13 officially signs professional contact with @Yankees @Charlotte49ers @NatsOnt @MedwayHS @CDNBaseballHOF
— BrentLaleCTV (@BrentLaleCTV) July 16, 2025
‘I’m officially a Yankee now’: Arva native signs his first professional baseball contract https://t.co/bWHyiZAjjH
- Round 13 pick Kyle West has signed. He shared a story from his agent, DJ Peterson, on his own Instagram stories.
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- Round 15 pick Jack Cebert has signed, per his Instagram.
View this post on Instagram
- Round 18 pick Justin West has signed, per the Paducah Sun in Kentucky (he went to Louisville and graduated from Paducah Tilghman High School).
- Round 20 pick Bryce Martin-Grudzielanek has signed, per The Canadian Baseball Network. He received the maximum bonus for Round 11 picks onward that does not count the rest of the pool.
Gallagher: Grudzielanek's son signs with Yankees for $150,000https://t.co/WG7hIjCyQu
— The Canadian Baseball Network (@CDNBaseballNet) July 16, 2025
By: Danny Gallagher (@dannogallagher7)#Yankees #MLBDraft
- The following picks have updated their Instagram accounts to note “Yankees” in their bio, which is a pretty strong signal that they either signed or will sign: Round 5’s Core Jackson, Round 8’s Mac Heuer, Round 11’s Ben Grable, Round 12’s Camden Troyer, and Round 14’s Brennan Stuprich. We’ll try to find confirmation, but we’re passing along the info.
7/17 (2): More news! Fifth-rounder Core Jackson has indeed signed, per the Yankees’ transactions page. MLB.com’s official draft tracker reported his bonus at $147,500, which is $263,600 under slot. That makes sense since he’s a senior sign.
7/18: As expected for Friday, Top pick Dax Kilby has officially signed! ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel reported the news, and that Kilby received a $2.8M bonus, which is $290,500 over slot. The savings from the Jackson signing just mentioned last night almost entirely cover it, so it won’t be hard for the Yankees to figure out the rest. More importantly, Kilby is now a Yankee and can begin his minor-league journey.
The Yankees have signed Georgia high school infielder Dax Kilby for a $2.8 million bonus, per source. He was their first pick at 39th overall.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) July 18, 2025
Slot for the pick is $2,509,500.
More from pinstripealley.com:
- Overall thoughts on the Yankees’ 2025 MLB Draft class
- Futures Game: Lombard doubles, walks, steals, and swears
- Yankees 1, Cubs 4: Imanaga stifles Bombers in first-half finale
- Yankees Trade Deadline Coverage
- The hitting genius of Aaron Judge
- Pinstripe Alley’s Top 100 Yankees
- 2000 Yankees Diary: The 25th Anniversary of MLB’s Last Three-peat
