Giants First-Round Pick Has Elite Contact Potential to Help Lineup

The San Francisco Giants have had a very strong first half of the season with their eyes set on making the playoffs.

Coming into the year, the Giants weren’t expected to be a contender, but with a new regime in the front office, they have exceeded all expectations.

Even though the National League has been a gauntlet of strong teams, Buster Posey got aggressive a few weeks ago with the addition of Rafael Devers. The star slugger from the Boston Red Sox should help improve a lineup that needs some pop.

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With that move, San Francisco will likely continue to be aggressive to try and improve with other teams in the NL looking to improve as well. While the Giants are playing well, one area that the franchise has struggled to improve is their farm system.

This unit comes in ranked as one of the worst in baseball, and could be a problem in the future. However, they used their first-round pick on an appealing position player, who at 21 years old might be able to help sooner rather than later.

Keith Law of The Athletic (subscription required) recently spoke about the strong draft pick that the Giants made in the first-round of the 2025 MLB draft.

“He’s on the smaller side, and he’s not going to stick at shortstop, but he combines excellent contact skills, very strong exit velocities, and a swing that tends to put the ball in the air on a line.”

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Gavin Kilen was one of the first college players taken in a draft that featured a lot of high school talent early on.

After starting his career with the Louisville Cardinals, Kilen transferred to the Tennessee Volunteers and saw his career take off. In 53 games, the 21-year-old slashed .357/.441/.671 with 15 home runs and 46 RBI. These are some elite numbers at the plate for Kilen, and it is easy to understand why he was taken by San Francisco with the 13th overall pick.

In terms of where he will play, moving to second base full-time seems to be the best course of action. He was a much better defender there compared to shortstop, and the Giants recently gave Willy Adames a massive contract to play that position.

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Hitting has been an issue for San Francisco for many years now, but the franchise is seemingly starting to prioritize improving there.

As a three-year college player, Kilen might be able to help out in the Majors in the near future.

For more Giants news, head over to Giants On SI.