SF Giants 2025 first-round pick may be on fast track to MLB after Tony Vitello hire

The SF Giants hired University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their next manager. This could be very good news for Gavin Kilen who was San Francisco's first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft.

Kilen is just one of several players in the Giants organization who has ties to Vitello and played under him at Tennessee.

SF Giants 2025 first-round pick may be on fast track to MLB after Tony Vitello hire

Kilen transferred to Tennessee ahead of the 2025 season and he had a great year. In 53 games he slashed .357/.441/.671 with 15 home runs and 46 runs batted in which is why San Francisco selected him with the 13th overall pick in the first round of draft.

The 21-year-old had a brief stint with the San Jose Giants, the Single-A affiliate for the Giants, in 2025 and his numbers were unremarkable as he slashed .205/.279/.282 in just ten games with San Jose. That is obviously a small sample size though so he has plenty of time to figure things out.

Kilen was drafted as a shortstop out of Tennessee but it is expected that he could move over to second base at some point. Plus, with Willy Adames signed to a long-term contract to be San Francisco's shortstop second base is really the only position Kilen could break through at in the next few years.

He has a similar profile to Giants legend Joe Panik who was also drafted as a shortstop out of college but was a second baseman in the majors. Both possess good bat-to-ball skills and excel at putting the ball in play which is a trait that president of baseball operations Buster Posey has really emphasized organizationally.

Do not expect Kilen to make his MLB debut in 2026 just because of Vitello's hiring, but it seems likely that he will make his debut at some point during Vitello's tenure as manager. The Giants have Casey Schmitt, Christian Koss, and Tyler Fitzgerald as options at second base next season but as of right now none of them seem like long-term solutions there.

If Kilen shows promise in the minors next season, do not be surprised if he sees some quick promotions. Second base is one of the few positions the Giants can improve at with a lot of other positions being locked in so that job could be there for the taking.

Kilen seems likely to benefit from having Vitello in his corner especially since he had such great success under the coach at Tennessee.