The Yankees signed first round pick Cito Culver, according to the team. Marc Carig of the Star Ledger reports (via Twitter) that the deal is worth $954K. Culver, a high school shortstop, placed 168th among the draft-eligible prospects that Baseball America ranked, so his selection in the first round was a surprise. But Yankees scouting director Damon Oppenheimer told fans at MLB.com that the Yankees couldn't pass Culver up.
"He has great tools, makeup and performs," Oppenheimer said. "He's a great shortstop and can hit."
The Yankees aren't the only ones who consider Culver a skilled defender. Baseball America says the shortstop has "all the tools to play shortstop in pro ball, including a 65 arm on the 20-80 scale." Culver is the eighth first rounder to agree to a deal. Click here for the complete, updated list of which first and supplemental rounders have signed.
Culver lists Derek Jeter as one of his favorite players and the Yankees as his favorite team on his high school bio page. Culver and C.J. Henry are the two high school shortstops the Yankees have drafted in the first round since they selected Jeter in 1992.
Hopefully they can nail down Jordan to compliment the draft class.
Definately an unconventional pick, but I understand the reasoning (didn’t think he would last the 50 picks in between their 1st and 2nd). Good that he is signed and can get started in the GCL. The Yanks have done a decent job of signing guys seen as reaches and developing them (Romine and Gardner come to mind, Cano if you want to count IFA).
So much for the wasting a pick to get compensation for next year theory. Well, the prospect ranking system in no way ever determines future success, so if the yanks scouts are saying the kid will be great… well what can any of us do but wait and see.
For sure. They signed the kid, so must see something in him and like him a lot. Boston made kind of a reach last year with slot guy Fuentes at #1, though he was not ranked quite as low on the charts.
Good luck with him, it’s always nice to see the unheralded picks make it.
is cj henry still in baseball? either way he must to have been a huge bust to be drafted 17th overall. that is why mlb should draft sttrictly out of college so teams get a better idea of what their players will become
I thought I heard he was going to Kansas to play basketball with his brother (potential lottery pick Xavier Henry). Not sure if that ever happened but I know he is out of baseball.
Yeah, he’s at KU playing basketball. His brother is much much better.
I didn’t understand why they drafted him at first, noone thought very high of him, but I hope he’ll be great.
That’s your opinion though. People seem to take the Keith Law and BA reports for Bible as that is all they read. They really have no clue how any of the MLB teams had anyone ranked. BA and Keith Law have been wrong on Romine, Gardner and Cano(wasn’t ranked anywhere as an IFA), yet the Yankee’s scouts were high on them and they seem to be great signings.
Well you also don’t know either, obviously any of these guys can turn into hall of famers, but who knows Harper might not even make it to the big leagues…
The way I see it, popular things like Baseball America are normally pretty good on the higher-up picks, saying that they’ll make it to the majors, but anything ranked below 50 or so is a crapshoot that only teams will know about, as BA and Keith Law won’t spend as much scouting them.
Well, hopefully his bat progresses throughout the next few years, it would be great to have a SS ready to take over when Jeter retires.
The way Jeter is hitting right now we could use a replacement next year.