The Giants signed infielder Buddy Kennedy and right-hander Caleb Kilian to minor league contracts last month, as per San Francisco’s official transactions page. The two players each elected minor league free agency following the season.
Kennedy appeared in 13 big league games in 2025, split between the Phillies (four games), Blue Jays (two games), and Dodgers (seven games). 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’s organization. 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.
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. His minor league numbers are markedly better (.281/.388/.429 with 33 homers over 1704 career Triple-A PA) but Kennedy’s calling card is his defensive versatility. Kennedy has a lot of experience at first, second, and third base, plus some work as a shortstop and left fielder.
Playing time figures to be scarce on a Giants’ 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 and Brendan Donovan. Casey Schmitt would move into a backup infield role in that scenario, and Christian Koss, Tyler Fitzgerald, and Osleivis Basabe are all ahead of Kennedy on the depth chart. Kennedy’s out-of-option status won’t help his chances of breaking camp, but he could stick at the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate as a depth option.
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 at the 2021 trade deadline. 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.
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’s active roster. 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.
Though there has been plenty of turnover within San Francisco’s 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. Staying on the field after two injury-marred seasons is the first priority, and the Giants’ pitching development team can then determine if Kilian still has a future as a starter or if a relief role is a better fit.
Welcome back, Caleb! So who won the Bryant trade?
I’d say both teams took a wash, but at least neither one got saddled with that horrible contract.
I think the Cubs got like 2 HR’s out of Canario and 15 bad innings out of Killian so in the end the Rockies lost that trade. LOL
Haha poor Rockies lol
How do you lose a trade you didn’t even make
You give a guy with a known back injury 180 million bucks that’s how Mr. Wizard! The Cubs didn’t want to re sign him. The Giants didn’t want to re sign him. So they oblige him with a ton of cash. LOL
Giants, this Bud’s for you!
World Series champion and Dodger legend Buddy Kennedy.
Him and Dean looking at each other wondering why they got exiled.
At least they got rings coming.
No guarantee either of them will get a ring. Dean probably will. Kennedy maybe not. Having played only two games with the Blue Jays, Kennedy was even less likely to get one if they had won the Series. It’s entirely up to management. So really the article should have said that Kennedy would have been eligible for a ring no matter who won the Series — not that he’d get one either way.
Again, no matter what “typically” happens, it is entirely up to management to determine if a player made a sufficient contribution to the team during the regular season to be awarded a ring. My point is, it definitely is not (as the article suggests) automatic. This is simply a fact.
For example, do you expect Andrew Heaney will get one? He pitched two innings of mop-up work in one game late in the season (and got shelled). Is he eligible for a ring? Yes. Will he get one? I doubt it.
Silly rabbit. The article made an inaccurate statement. I’m not wishing for anything except correct information. Some still do. Maybe you aren’t one of them.
More minor league scrubs & pitchers coming off injuries. Like the Mandalodian says, “this is the Giants way”. Should have grabbed Alex Canario before he headed to Japan to really tell the Cubs to suck it.
RE RD
“minor league scrubs ”
Another [person] who hasn’t achieved a tenth as much in their life as these guys calling them “scrubs”.
These guys are around the top 1000 baseball players in the world. Very unlikely you are the 1000th best, uh, pharmacist in the world.
Top 1000th baseball players won’t help this team.
Won’t help the team…just like Kennedy & Kilian. The only thing delusional is thinking these kind of moves will help the Giants.
Ha ha. There’s thinking it, then there’s crying about it on the internet like a butt hurt child. Different things. Men do one. Manchilds do the other.
This off season looks a lot like Farhan types.