SF Giants take nephew of longtime division rival in 12th round of MLB draft

In the 12th round of the MLB draft, the SF Giants selected high school outfielder Josiah Kemp out of Choctaw High School in Choctaw, Oklahoma. He is the nephew of longtime division rival Matt Kemp.

The elder Kemp played in the majors for 15 seasons, including 10 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also played with the San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies, so the Giants saw a lot of him over the years.

Of course, that is not the only player the Giants picked in this year's draft who has major league bloodlines. They also selected Peyton Bonds in the third round out of Rutgers University. Peyton is the nephew of Barry Bonds and the son of former pro outfielder Bobby Bonds Jr.

The Giants leaned more on pitching in this year's draft. They added a pitcher with eight of their first 11 picks. This includes four pitchers out of five selections on the first day of the draft.

Jackson Flora headlined that group in the first round. They followed that by drafting a pair of prep arms in Carson Bolemon and Kaden Waechter with their next two selections.

You can usually see what the strategy is with the draft based on a couple of selections. For the Giants, it was getting the best college pitcher in the draft, along with two high-upside arms. The remainder of the draft was seemingly done to create enough bonus pool space to get Bolemon and Waechter to sign.

SF Giants make another fascinating pick in the 12th round

The Giants also made another fascinating pick with the Josiah Kemp selection. Ben Badler of Baseball America profiles him as an athletic outfielder with a good feel for contact. He was not ranked in MLB Pipeline's top-250 players in this year's class.

Kemp has a commitment to Oklahoma University, so they will need to sway him from that commitment. Given that he was picked in the 12th round, they likely feel good about their odds in doing this.

Normally, teams wait until the end of the draft to select tough-to-sign high school players. This is often done as a backup plan in case any of their picks within the first 10 rounds do not sign.

There is no slot value in the 12th round. Teams can offer a bonus of up to $150,000 without is counting against the bonus pool. Anything above it gets factored into the calculation. The Giants will almost certainly need to generate savings within the first 10 rounds to be able to sign Kemp.

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