With unique resource in Vitello, Giants eye cornerstone at No. 4

The 2026 MLB Draft is shaping up to be a potentially transformative event for the Giants.

Thanks to a lucky break in the MLB Draft Lottery, the Giants will have the fourth overall selection this year, giving them their highest pick since they took Joey Bart at No. 2 overall in 2018. It was a major win for the Giants, who had been in line to select 15th based on their 81-81 record last season.

It’ll mark only the sixth time in franchise history that San Francisco will get a chance to pick inside the top five. Three of those picks -- Buster Posey (No. 5 overall in 2008), Matt Williams (No. 3 in 1986) and Will Clark (No. 2 in 1985) -- developed into franchise cornerstones for the Giants, underscoring the magnitude of the opportunity that awaits the organization this week.

The Giants’ farm system is already teeming with young shortstops like Josuar Gonzalez (San Francisco’s No. 1 prospect per MLB Pipeline), Luis Hernández (No. 2), Jhonny Level (No. 3), and Gavin Kilen (No. 4), but that won’t preclude the organization from taking another one at the top of the Draft this year.

MLB Pipeline’s latest Mock Draft has the Giants selecting Florida prep shortstop Jacob Lombard with the fourth pick this year. UC Santa Barbara right-hander Jackson Flora, Georgia Tech outfielder Drew Burress and Mississippi prep outfielder Eric Booth Jr. could be available at the spot, as well.

The Giants won’t have to wait long to add to their Draft haul this year, as they also acquired the 29th overall selection -- a Competitive Balance pick -- as part of the Patrick Bailey trade with the Guardians in May.

“It’s exciting,” said Posey, who is now in his second season as the Giants’ president of baseball operations. “We have all the faith in the world in our amateur scouting department, with Michael Holmes leading that up. We kind of found some luck with the fourth pick, and now being able to add the 29th, we’re going to have some access to some really talented players. It should be good.”

• Day 1 picks: 4, 29, 55, 90, 118
• Bonus pool allotment: $17,350,600, fourth-highest in the Majors behind the Pirates, Rays and White Sox
• Last year’s top pick: Kilen, SS, pick 13 ... Known for his elite bat-to-ball skills, Kilen played under current Giants manager Tony Vitello at the University of Tennessee last year, when he emerged as a consensus first-team All-American at second base. Kilen, 22, has primarily manned shortstop at High-A Eugene this year and earned a 2026 MLB Futures Game selection after batting .283 with an .818 OPS and nine home runs over 75 games for the Emeralds.
• Breakout 2025 pick: Trevor Cohen, OF, pick 85 ... Like Kilen, Cohen is viewed as an elite contact hitter who batted .387 while striking out only 5% of the time during his junior season at Rutgers last year. Cohen hasn’t slowed down in his first full season in pro ball, hitting .297 with an .810 OPS, 25 stolen bases and three homers over 74 games at High-A Eugene this year.

The Giants gravitated toward contact-oriented hitters who play premium defensive positions in Posey’s first Draft class, so it will be interesting to see if that trend continues in 2026.

Holmes and the rest of the Giants’ amateur scouting department will spearhead the drafting efforts, but they’ll also have a bit of unique resource in Vitello, who recruited or competed against many of the top players in this year’s Draft class during his college days at Tennessee.

“If they’re getting mentioned in the Draft, they have high character,” Vitello said. “But what is the makeup? What’s the family dynamic? What does a guy look for? How does he approach certain things? They involve me in the conversations. I think part of it is creating a good work environment. But it’s not going to be a decision that’s made because of something I input. These guys are traveling all over the country. I tried to, when I covered those drafts [on MLB Network], make sure fans know how much work is put into each decision.

“As much as the fans want to celebrate the guy they want to get picked, there’s an insane amount of hours put in with boots on the ground so the guys can make the best-educated decision possible. There are many stories to look at. It’s recruiting, and it’s scouting. It’s impossible to predict the future. All due respect to football and basketball, it is way harder in this sport to predict the future with a pitcher or a hitter.”