{"id":389104,"date":"2026-01-05T07:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/389104\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T07:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T07:12:08","slug":"giants-sign-buddy-kennedy-caleb-kilian-to-minors-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/389104\/","title":{"rendered":"Giants Sign Buddy Kennedy, Caleb Kilian To Minors Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Giants signed infielder Buddy Kennedy<\/a> and right-hander Caleb Kilian<\/a> to minor league contracts last month, as per San Francisco\u2019s official transactions page<\/a>.\u00a0 The two players each elected minor league free agency following the season.<\/p>\n

Kennedy appeared in 13 big league games in 2025, split between the Phillies (four games), Blue Jays (two games), and Dodgers (seven games).\u00a0 Because Kennedy is out of minor league options, he had to be designated for assignment rather than being simply sent down to Triple-A, resulting in a string of DFAs, outrights, a waiver claim, and two separate stints in Toronto\u2019s organization.\u00a0 Despite his brief time with both the Dodgers and Blue Jays, Kennedy was assured of a World Series ring no matter who won the Fall Classic, bringing a nice bonus to the end of his fourth MLB season.<\/p>\n

Beginning his pro career in the Diamondbacks organization, Kennedy has hit .178\/.271\/.274 over 181 big league plate appearances over 67 games with five different teams.\u00a0 His minor league numbers are markedly better (.281\/.388\/.429 with 33 homers over 1704 career Triple-A PA) but Kennedy\u2019s calling card is his defensive versatility.\u00a0 Kennedy has a lot of experience at first, second, and third base, plus some work as a shortstop and left fielder.<\/p>\n

Playing time figures to be scarce on a Giants\u2019 infield that has a set starter at every position except second base, and even the keystone could be filled with a prominent name given the rumors linking San Francisco to Ketel Marte<\/a> and Brendan Donovan<\/a>.\u00a0 Casey Schmitt<\/a> would move into a backup infield role in that scenario, and Christian Koss<\/a>, Tyler Fitzgerald<\/a>, and Osleivis Basabe<\/a> are all ahead of Kennedy on the depth chart.\u00a0 Kennedy\u2019s out-of-option status won\u2019t help his chances of breaking camp, but he could stick at the Giants\u2019 Triple-A affiliate as a depth option.<\/p>\n

Kilian began his pro career as an eighth-round pick for the Giants in the 2019 draft, and the righty was one of the two prospects San Francisco dealt to the Cubs for Kris Bryant<\/a> at the 2021 trade deadline.\u00a0 Kilian started five of eight games for Chicago scattered across the 2022-24 seasons, and he has a 9.22 ERA and almost as many walks (six) as strikeouts (seven) over his 27 1\/3 career Major League innings.<\/p>\n

A teres major strain also kept Kilian on the injured list for over half of the 2024 season, and an undisclosed injury while in Triple-A limited the righty to 15 2\/3 minor league innings in 2025 and no time on Chicago\u2019s active roster.\u00a0 Pitching mostly out of the bullpen for the first time in his career, Kilian struggled to a 7.47 ERA in 2025, though his health issues likely impacted that shaky performance.<\/p>\n

Though there has been plenty of turnover within San Francisco\u2019s organization since the last time Kilian was there, the 28-year-old could benefit from a familiar environment and some fresh voices to help him get his career on track.\u00a0 Staying on the field after two injury-marred seasons is the first priority, and the Giants\u2019 pitching development team can then determine if Kilian still has a future as a starter or if a relief role is a better fit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Giants signed infielder Buddy Kennedy and right-hander Caleb Kilian to minor league contracts last month, as per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":389105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[33134,49,165112,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-389104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-buddy-kennedy","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-caleb-kilian","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=389104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/389105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=389104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=389104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=389104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}