Former Tennessee baseball star under Tony Vitello, Drew Gilbert, mashed his first home run at the MLB level on Sunday. Now with the San Francisco Giants, he lifted a ball deep into right field just shy of splashing into the bay. The solo shot in the bottom of the seventh made it a 5-0 game for the Giants.
This was by far the best day yet for Gilbert in the MLB. He finished 2-for-4 at the plate with two RBI and a run scored. Through eight games in The Show, Gilbert is hitting at a .136 clip with a .409 OPS. His two RBI on the day are the first two of his career.
Gilbert hit in the eight-hole on the day while playing in right field. Out in the field, he has already made an incredible catch. While he didn’t make a SportsCenter Top 10 type of catch on Sunday, he did plenty to help San Francisco earn a 7-1 win to bring its record up to 60-64 on the year.
Drew Gilbert has his first home run in the bigs. pic.twitter.com/n0FT4ATeaU
— Ryan Schumpert (@rschump00) August 17, 2025
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Gilbert has bounced around to multiple teams since he was drafted. He initially joined the Astros’ franchise, but was moved to the Mets’ organization early in his career. This trade deadline, Gilbert and another former Tony Vitello Era Vol, Blade Tidwell, were dealt to San Francisco.
Gilbert spent three years at Tennessee and was a two-way starter, helping lead the Vols to the 2021 College World Series and to the 2022 SEC Regular-Season and Tournament Championship.
The centerfielder was good as a sophomore, but developed into one of the SEC’s best players in his junior season. Improving his hard contact rate, strikeout rate and batting average, Gilbert hit .362 with 11 home runs and 70 RBIs in his final collegiate season.
After being named a First-Team All-American and First-Team All-SEC player, he was selected in the first round of the 2022 MLB Draft with the No. 28 overall pick by the Astros.
