The Diamondbacks didn't wait long to lock up their newest arm. Blake Bryant, the supplemental first-round pick Arizona took out of Citizens Christian Academy in Georgia, is officially signed, and the price tag says a lot about how much the org believes in the ceiling here.
Jim Callis broke the signing details: a $2.75 million bonus for the projectable Georgia prep righty.
Per Callis, Bryant inked for $2.75 million, a bit under the slot value of $3,118,300 attached to pick No. 31. That's still first-round money for a kid who was set to head to Clemson before Arizona wrote the check. At 6-foot-6, 182 pounds, he's got the classic projectable pitcher's frame teams dream on, and he's already sitting in the low-to-mid 90s and reaching 97 mph as a high schooler, which is the kind of number that gets a franchise to buy out a college commitment.
It's not just the fastball. Scouts have flagged a slider that could become a true plus pitch, and Bryant already shows feel for a curveball and changeup, a full four-pitch mix that's rare for a prep arm his age. As a senior he reportedly went 10-0 with a 0.22 ERA and 141 strikeouts in 64 innings, numbers that made the decision to walk away from Clemson baseball a lot easier once the D-backs came calling with a $2.75 million offer.
For Arizona, this is another swing at stockpiling power arms in a farm system that's already been one of the deeper pipelines in baseball. Getting a projectable righty with mid-rotation, potentially higher, upside locked in before the summer's out lets player development get to work immediately instead of waiting through a fall of college recruiting drama. Bryant now heads into the org as one of the highest-ceiling prep arms Arizona has taken in years, and the radar gun readings alone are going to make him a name to track in every prospect list that drops between now and next spring.