The Giants and University of Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello have agreed to a deal that will see Vitello become San Francisco’s new manager, according to Baseball America’s Jacob Rudner. The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, Brittany Ghiroli, and Ken Rosenthal reported on Saturday that Vitello and the Giants were getting close to an agreement, with ESPN’s Jeff Passan adding that a decision one way or the other would come within 24-to-72 hours.
As it turned out, it took about an extra day to fully finalize the deal, but the bottom line is that the Giants have now made one of the most interesting managerial hires in baseball history. In recent years, several MLB teams have looking to hire coaches from the collegiate ranks or from other backgrounds with little or no pro experience, and some past or current managers have gotten their jobs with little to no coaching or managerial experience. However, Vitello is a unique case of a lifelong collegiate coach who is moving to professional baseball with no past history as a player, coach, or manager in either Major League or minor league ball.
This isn’t to say that Vitello doesn’t have a decorated resume, as the 47-year-old is one of the most successful NCAA coaches of the last decade. Since Vitello was hired by Tennessee in June 2017, the program won its first national baseball title in 2024, and made two more trips to the College World Series in both 2021 and 2023. The Volunteers also won the SEC regular-season and tournament crowns during the 2022 and 2024 seasons. Before coming to Tennessee, Vitello was an assistant baseball coach at Missouri, TCU, and Arkansas from 2003-2017.
Several of Vitello’s former players (including Missouri’s Max Scherzer) have reached the major leagues, and 10 Tennessee players have gone on to be first-round draft picks since Vitello took over the program. The Giants have four ex-Tennessee players — Drew Gilbert, Blade Tidwell, Maui Ahuna, and 2025 first-rounder Gavin Kilen — in their organization, which undoubtedly helped forge a connection between Vitello and Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey.
Vitello is Posey’s first managerial hire since taking over the PBO role a year ago, as Bob Melvin was a holdover from the Farhan Zaidi’s time in charge of San Francisco’s front office. Melvin had only been in the job for one season, and after he followed up that 80-82 campaign with an 81-81 mark in 2025, the Giants chose to fire Melvin once the 2025 campaign was over. This decision was made despite the fact that the Giants had exercised their 2026 club option on Melvin on July 1, yet the team’s inconsistent play over the last three months convinced Posey that a change had to be made.
Though Melvin’s time in San Francisco was uneventful, it will be fascinating to see how the team and the organization as a whole adjusts from a Major League lifer (and three-time Manager of the Year winner) like Melvin to Vitello in his first foray into pro baseball. That said, Vitello has something of an old-school approach himself, with a focus on fundamentals and competitiveness.
In a recent appearance on a Youth.inc podcast (hat tip to Baggarly for the partial transcript), Vitello said “I think everyone is suffering the consequences all the way up to the big leagues where guys are super skilled, but there’s less development, less coaching, less accountability and therefore less understanding of how to actually play the game to win. And it starts all the way, trickle-down effect.”
As Baggarly notes, Posey has shared similar critiques about players, which may explain why Vitello became a more attractive managerial candidate in the PBO’s eyes. It is also worth noting that Vitello may not have been Posey’s initial top choice, as initial reports pegged former Giants catcher Nick Hundley as a favorite for the manager’s position. Hundley withdrew his name from consideration, reportedly due to concerns over how the day-to-day grind of managing in the big leagues would impact his family.
Of all the names publicly linked to the Giants’ search, former Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde was the only one with past managerial experience at the big league level. Other known candidates included Royals third base coach Vance Wilson and two ex-players in Hundley and Kurt Suzuki (just hired yesterday as the Angels’ new manager) who had no coaching/managerial experience in the majors or minors. Clearly a traditional managerial resume wasn’t a key priority for Posey in assessing his choices, even if Vitello is a step beyond.
Managing a big league team and coaching a college team are very different animals, not to mention the gap between coaching college kids and overseeing a clubhouse of highly-paid veteran professionals. That said, Vitello is renowned as a leader and motivator. As detailed in Baggarly’s piece, such big leaguers as Scherzer and Angels reliever Ben Joyce (a Tennessee product) heavily praised Vitello, and think he’ll thrive managing in the Show.
With Vitello now in San Francisco, the Giants join the Angels (Suzuki) and Rangers (Skip Schumaker) as clubs who have now removed themselves from a busy managerial carousel. The Twins, Orioles, Padres, Nationals, Rockies, and Braves all remain as teams still looking for a new dugout boss.
Inset photo courtesy of Brianna Paciorka — Imagn Images
