San Francisco used pick No. 358 overall, the 12th round of this year's draft, on Josiah Kemp, a prep outfielder out of Choctaw High School in Oklahoma. On paper that's a throwaway pick most years. In practice, the Giants treated it like anything but, handing Kemp a reported $400,000 bonus to walk away from his commitment to Oklahoma baseball.
Jim Callis broke down the signing, the bonus-pool math, and the family connection.
12th-rder Josiah Kemp signs w/@SFGiants for $400k ($250k will count vs bonus pool). Oklahoma prep OF, raw tools include solid power potential, plus speed & CF defense. Nephew of three-time All-Star Matt Kemp, @OU_Baseball recruit. @MLBDraft
That name is the hook here. Josiah is the nephew of Matt Kemp, the three-time All-Star and 2018 batting title runner-up who spent 15 seasons mashing for the Dodgers, Padres, Braves and Reds. Uncle Matt's career is the kind of resume that gets a raw prep bat extra scouting looks, but front offices don't hand out $400k over-slot deals on pedigree alone.
The scouting profile explains the rest of it. Kemp ran a 6.54 60-yard dash and clocked 91 mph outfield arm strength as a senior, tools that scream center field long-term. He hit .509 with 5 home runs, 45 RBIs and 24 steals in his final high school season, the kind of contact-plus-speed-plus-pop combo that projects as a five-tool gamble rather than a safe, finished product.
That 12th-round slot exists precisely for these bets. Teams routinely blow past assigned bonus values in rounds 11 through 20 to buy out prep players who'd otherwise honor a college commitment, banking the extra bonus-pool room they saved elsewhere in the draft to close the deal. Getting a legitimately toolsy center fielder to sign away from a Power 4 program for $400k, with $250k of it actually counting against the bonus pool, is the exact kind of value swing that can make or break a farm system's depth chart 5 years down the line.
It's a low-cost, high-upside flier for a Giants system that's been searching for high-end athleticism in the outfield mix. Nobody's projecting Kemp to be the next Matt Kemp off one prep season and a summer of workouts, but plus speed, real raw power and a center-field frame are the raw materials scouts chase every July. Now it's on San Francisco's player development staff to see if the bloodline tools actually play.