Monday, September 28

It’s no secret that Buster Posey values contact skills.

Since taking over as the Giants’ president of baseball operations at the end of the 2024 season, Posey has tried to bring more lineup balance to the organization by targeting players with elite bat-to-ball ability. 

He signed three-time batting champion Luis Arraez to a one-year, $12 million contract over the offseason. Posey acquired catcher Jesus Rodriguez, a career .309 hitter in the Minors, as part of the prospect haul netted at the Trade Deadline last July. And Posey used his top two picks in the 2025 MLB Draft on a pair of college hitters -- shortstop Gavin Kilen and outfielder Trevor Cohen -- who were two of the toughest outs in the country last year. 

Why does Posey, a former National League batting champion himself, like contact so much?

“I’m a big believer in being the aggressor,” Posey said in February. “I think offensively, it’s hard to be the aggressor if you’re not putting the ball in play. I also think part of the reason I feel that way is that contact hitters for us right now do balance out some of the other profiles of the hitters that we have. I’m not going to sit here and say that I believe that you build a lineup strictly with contact hitters. 

“I think I draw a little bit on my playing experience, as well. The best teams I was on, when you get to the playoffs and you’re facing the toughest pitchers, the teams that can put the ball in play and force the defense to make the plays are usually in a better position than the ones that are going to strike out 15, 16 times a game.”

Whiffs have become a common tradeoff for more power in the modern game, but contact-oriented offenses could be on the rise following the success of the Blue Jays, who led the Majors in batting average and had the lowest strikeout rate while reaching the World Series last year.

The Giants hired Hunter Mense, Toronto’s former assistant hitting coach, to lead their hitting instruction at the big league level this year, but vice president of player development Randy Winn said the virtues of putting the ball in play are being stressed throughout the organization.  

“I think that starts at the top,” Winn said last month. “What Buster saw from his clubs, other clubs and what won. I think more along those lines, what he hated catching against, honestly. The teams that kept him up at night or were tough to game plan against, those were contact-oriented teams. Those were deeper lineups, situational hitters, guys that hated striking out. I think when he took this position, you probably heard him say it 1,000 times. That was something that stuck out. And so you saw that in our Draft.” 

Kilen, who played for manager Tony Vitello at the University of Tennessee before being taken by the Giants with the 13th overall pick last year, has had a knack for contact since his prep days in his native Wisconsin. It hasn’t taken long for that skill to show up at High-A Eugene, where San Francisco’s No. 5 prospect has gone 8-for-16 (.500) with eight RBIs, two doubles and two home runs -- including a walk-off shot against Hillsboro on Friday -- over his first four games of the season.

“I think a lot of good things can happen when you do put the ball in play,” Kilen, 22, said last month. “I guess the big thing they talk about is: Contact is really good, but you want good contact. You want quality contact. A lot of line drives, a lot of good extra-base hits, swinging for the gaps, not trying to do too much, really fighting and competing in counts, get pitchers out of the game quicker. Really go to the bullpen, use more arms. I just think it's very versatile when you have a lot of guys that can make a lot of good contact like that.”

Cohen, the Giants’ No. 9 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has a similar mindset at the plate. He set a Big Ten record with 56 hits during conference play as a junior at Rutgers and struck out only 5% of the time last year, which prompted the Giants to select him in the third round of the 2025 Draft.

Cohen, 22, batted .327 in 28 regular-season games for Single-A San Jose and .438 in the playoffs last season before making the jump to Eugene, where he’s 2-for-15 with four walks and three stolen bases through his first four games of 2026. 

“It's just a bunch of gritty guys that are relentless,” Cohen said of the benefits of having a contact-oriented lineup. “It’s kind of scary for an opposing pitching staff seeing that. These guys won’t strike out. They're not willing to strike out, and they won't accept it. That's kind of hard because it puts pressure on the pitcher. They can't miss, and knowing that puts pressure on the defense constantly. That's what I like -- that 'pest' mentality. You're just annoying to the other team.”

Kilen and Cohen are still a ways away from debuting in San Francisco, but the Giants could get a look at the 23-year-old Rodriguez sooner rather than later, especially if they want to find a way to keep the hot-hitting Daniel Susac’s bat in the lineup.

Rodriguez, who crushed his first home run of the season for Triple-A Sacramento on Tuesday, could serve as the third catcher and even fill in at second base in a pinch, which could make him an intriguing bench option this season. 

“I think the thing that he does well is having versatility,” Winn said. “To be able to have a guy on the roster that can catch but also can move around and swing the bat and run the bases the way that he's capable of is a good weapon to have.”

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