The Diamondbacks wasted no time getting their second-round pick under contract. Carson Kerce, the Georgia Tech shortstop Arizona took 53rd overall, signed for $1.9 million, a number that blows past the assigned slot value for that pick.
2nd-rder Carson Kerce signs w/@Dbacks for $1.9 millon (slot 53 = $1,848,200). @GTBaseball SS, line-drive contact bat, second in NCAA D-I with 29 doubles, instincts apparent on bases and at shortstop. @MLBDraft
That $1.9 million figure is well above the $1,848,200 slot for pick 53, which tells you Arizona wanted this guy badly enough to pay up. It's the kind of overslot deal teams reserve for players they think outkicked their draft position, and on paper Kerce fits that bill.
The production backs it up. Kerce slashed .384/.473/.679 with 11 home runs in 61 games for Georgia Tech this past season, and his 29 doubles set a single-season program record while finishing second in all of Division I. He worked his way across the infield during his three years in Atlanta, starting at second base as a freshman, leading the ACC in defensive runs saved at third as a sophomore, and breaking out as an All-American shortstop as a junior.
Scouts peg him as a 55-grade hit tool guy without huge over-the-fence power, which lines up with a doubles-heavy profile more than a slugger's. That's exactly the type of bat teams love funneling into a farm system: a contact-oriented, gap-to-gap hitter with instincts on the bases and in the field, rather than a boom-or-bust power project.
For a Diamondbacks org that has leaned into player development and athletic infielders in recent years, adding a polished college performer who barely strikes out gives the pipeline another safe bet. Kerce won't need much swing overhaul, and the bonus suggests Arizona expects him to move quickly once he starts logging pro at-bats.
Now it's about tracking where he lands to open his first full pro season and how fast that doubles pop translates against better arms. If the bat plays the way it did in Atlanta, this is the kind of underslot-adjacent, overslot-paid pick that quietly becomes one of the better value grabs of the draft class.