The D-backs have agreed to terms on a deal with No. 18 overall pick Kayson Cunningham, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com. Cunningham, a high school shortstop out of Texas, will receive a $4,581,900 bonus — full slot value for his selection. Arizona also agreed to a $3MM bonus with No. 29 overall pick Patrick Forbes, a right-hander out of Louisville (also via Callis). That’s $191K under slot value.
Cunningham, 19, was regarded as a clear first-round talent and considered the best pure hitter among this year’s high school ranks — if not the best pure hit tool in the pool overall. He’ll forgo his commitment to Texas and begin his professional career. Cunningham landed as highly as No. 8 on FanGraphs’ rankings of the top prospects in this year’s draft. Baseball America ranked him 12th, while MLB.com had him 14th and Keith Law ranked him 15th over at The Athletic. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel ranked him 25th heading into the draft.
Scouting reports on Cunningham laud his feel for hitting and above-average speed, but there are questions about whether he’ll stick at shortstop or have to move over to second base, where the bar for offense is higher. He’s also perhaps generously listed at 5’10”, leading to some questions about his size, but Cunningham has the makings of a hit-over-power middle infielder with good speed.
Forbes ranked 29th at FanGraphs, 31st at MLB.com, 32nd at The Athletic, 33rd at ESPN and 47th at Baseball America. He’s a 6’3″, 220-pound righty who’d previously been a two-way player but is now focused on the mound, where he boasts an upper-90s heater and an above-average slider. Forbes has missed time due to injuries and pitched just 29 innings in 2024. He bounced back with 71 1/3 frames this year, and while his 4.42 ERA was lacking, he fanned nearly 37% of his opponents.
The Diamondbacks also agreed to an under-slot deal with third-round pick Brian Curley and over-slot deals with fourth-rounder Dean Livingston and 11th-rounder Luke Dotson (all per Callis). Curley’s $700K bonus checks in about $139K under slot value. Livingston’s $1MM bonus is nearly $400K over his slot value of $611K. Dotson secures a $500K bonus — $350K of which will count against Arizona’s draft pool. (All picks in rounds 11-20 come with a standard $150K slot value, and only money that exceeds that figure counts toward the team’s pool.)
