Buster Posey may have drafted the next Joe Panik with SF Giants first round pick

Buster Posey is in the middle of his first MLB Draft as president of baseball operations for the SF Giants. He may have just selected the next Joe Panik in shortstop Gavin Kilen as the two share similar profiles.

The Giants took Kilen with the 13th pick in the first round of the 2025 MLB Draft. Kilen is a 21-year-old out of the University of Tennessee who was projected to go later in the first round, but Posey and the front office clearly saw something they liked.

Buster Posey makes first SF Giants draft selection with Tennessee shortstop

Kilen has put up some solid numbers in his collegiate career as our own Jeff Young notes on social media:

In his last season at Tennessee, he slashed .357/.441/.671 with 15 home runs and 46 RBI in 53 games. He plays shortstop, although some speculate he may have to move to second base at the big league level.

Kilen bats left-handed and is known for his bat-to-ball skills and high contact rate. Perhaps Posey and the front office view him as a solid future second baseman for the team in the mold of Joe Panik as a guy who can put the ball in play and has good bat control.

Panik, also a left-handed hitting middle infielder, was drafted as a shortstop in the first round of the 2011 MLB Draft out of St. John's. He went on to be a huge contributor for the 2014 Giants as they won the World Series and he had some solid seasons after that as well, earning an All-Star nod in 2015, so if Kilen can even do half as much as Panik he will have been a solid pick.

This pick went a little against conventional wisdom as a mock draft had two experts predicting that the Giants would take right-handed pitcher Kyson Witherspoon. It would have made sense for the Giants to select a pitcher after they traded away one of the more promising young arms in their rotation away in Kyle Harrison.

Yet, Posey and the front office went a different route and got their guy. You never know how a draftee will turn out, but let's hope Kilen can develop into a solid player for San Francisco down the road.

The Giants have another draft pick tonight in the third round and all of their picks in the draft can be viewed here.