Where Do Giants Plan on Playing Their Newest First-Round Pick?

The San Francisco Giants had new leadership in the MLB draft as president of baseball operations Buster Posey made his first selection in the role.

He kicked off his tenure by selecting Tennessee infielder Gavin Kilen with the No. 13 overall pick on Sunday night.

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It was the second time Kilen was drafted, as he was initially selected by the Boston Red Sox in the 13th round of the 2022 draft. Kilen elected to stick with his commitment to Louisville. He transferred to the Volunteers for the best season of his career in the 2025 campaign.

The left-handed hitter slashed .357/.441/.671 with a 1.112 OPS, 15 home runs, 46 RBI and six stolen bases.

Kilen is a contact hitter, and his scouting report indicates he has a tendency to chase pitches outside the strike zone. However, he has seen an increase in power each year.

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His slugging percentage has grown each season of this three-year collegiate career. In 2025, Kilen hit the second-most home runs of any player in program history for the Volunteers.

But where do the Giants see him fitting across the infield?

Maria Guardado of MLB.com reported that San Francisco intends to develop Kilen as a shortstop, where he started 54 games for the Cardinals as a sophomore in 2022.

This is interesting because his average arm strength profiles him closer to second base.

Giants' senior director of amateur scouting, Michael Holmes, spoke on a Zoom call after the draft about the team’s latest first-round pick.

“It’s a middle-of-the-diamond player who played a lot of shortstop over his three-year college career,” Holmes said. “He also played a little second base. Kind of elite bat-to-ball skills. We’re talking about a career 10% strikeout rate for him in his college years. More walks than strikeouts. We think it’s more of a line-drive hitter, but it was a guy that was able to hit 15 home runs this year, so we think there’s some power to come. Just really excited to have him.”

As Holmes referenced, Kilen had 27 strikeouts to 30 walks in 210 at-bats for Tennessee in 2025.

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It was a significant selection for San Francisco since they forfeited their second- and fifth-round picks to sign qualified free agent Willy Adames to a seven-year, $182 million contract.

They rounded out their Day 1 selections in the third round with outfielder Trevor Cohen from Rutgers.

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