There isn’t any different strategy to describe the fortieth supervisor within the historical past of the San Francisco Giants moreover unprecedented.
By no means earlier than has a coach gone instantly from the school ranks to the foremost leagues with no prior expertise, however Tony Vitello will do precisely that when he’s launched because the Giants’ subsequent supervisor at Oracle Park subsequent Thursday. The membership introduced the groundbreaking rent Wednesday, three weeks after president of baseball operations Buster Posey determined to fireplace Bob Melvin.
On the time, Posey mentioned the Giants have been looking for “a different voice” to go in a “different direction,” and did they ever.
Whereas Melvin was a milquetoast mainstay with 20 years of expertise as a major-league supervisor, Vitello arrives as a 47-year-old firebrand who neither performed nor coached at any stage {of professional} baseball. What he has achieved is remodel a once-downtrodden faculty program into perennial winners — and seemed cool doing it.
FILE – Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, heart, hoists the championship trophy following his group’s 6-5 victory in opposition to Texas A&M in Recreation 3 of the NCAA School World Sequence baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., June 24, 2024. (AP Picture/Rebecca S. Gratz, File)
Whether or not that interprets to the large leagues stays to be seen, however Vitello has gotten loads of votes of confidence from those that know him.
“He makes you want to go to the field everyday,” mentioned Blake Burke, the Oakland-born first baseman on Vitello’s 2024 title group at Tennessee. “You go there, and you have fun. There’s just something in the air when you go to the field. The culture is great.”
“I don’t know how it’s going to translate and all that,” he mentioned. “But whatever he’s done, he’s been successful doing it. … He’s a great guy off the field and a competitor on the field. I feel like that’s exactly what you want out of your coach.”
One other Division I faculty coach whose group performed in opposition to the Volunteers and is aware of individuals across the program mentioned he believed Vitello was match make the bounce as a result of “as a relentless competitor and elite recruiter, he knows how to identify talent and bring out the best in people.”
Max Scherzer, who could possibly be a free-agent goal this offseason, was at Missouri when Vitello was the pitching coach and developed an enduring bond.
“I absolutely believe in him,” he informed Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. “He’s to this day one of my closest friends and I absolutely believe he’s gonna get it done at the big league level.”
The choice will outline Posey’s period atop the baseball aspect of the group, simply because the less-out-of-the-box rent of Gabe Kapler did for Farhan Zaidi earlier than him. So, earlier than Vitello dons the Giants jersey for the primary time subsequent week, it’s value exploring how he obtained right here, what drives him and why he’s the candidate Posey landed on to guide his model of the San Francisco Giants.
He rotated Tennessee
The Giants and Volunteers share greater than the colour orange.
When Vitello took over the Tennessee program in 2017, it had been greater than a decade since its final School World Sequence look. Likewise, the Giants have been mired in mediocrity, ending round .500 and lacking the playoffs the previous 4 seasons.
Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, left, cheers on his gamers within the fifth inning of an NCAA faculty baseball match tremendous regional recreation in opposition to Southern Mississippi, Sunday, June 11, 2023, in Hattiesburg, Miss. The sport was a continuation of Saturday’s play which was suspended because of climate considerations. (AP Picture/Rogelio V. Solis)
Vitello reworked Tennessee into an SEC powerhouse. They returned to the NCAA match in 2019, made it again to Omaha in 2021 and received all of it in 2024. In eight seasons in Knoxville, Vitello gathered a file of 341-131, a .722 profitable proportion.
Now, the Giants will ask him to do the identical — solely within the large leagues.
‘He could talk, for sure’
In line with a number of experiences, Vitello blew Posey away throughout the interview course of.
He confirmed off the identical persona that he put to make use of on the recruiting path, pulling within the top-ranked lessons within the nation the previous two seasons, in line with Excellent Recreation. That’s one space unique to school baseball, and the Giants’ roster already has a robust basis.
Nonetheless, the group hasn’t fairly shaken the narrative that it struggles to promote San Francisco as a vacation spot for marquee free brokers. Vitello should change up his pitch just a little (darken the shade of orange on the slide deck, not less than), however possibly these expertise translate to free company conferences.
When the Volunteers would hit a skid, Vitello was the kind of supervisor who would “try everything,” Burke mentioned. He didn’t hesitate to name group conferences and deal with the clubhouse. Usually, it was convincing stuff.
“He could talk, for sure,” Burke mentioned. “He’s really good with words. … He’s just a great leader, a great people’s coach. He connected well with people and just created a good culture.”
‘He’s only a nice gamers’ coach’
The tradition at Tennessee established beneath Vitello grew to become stuff of legend, or infamy, relying in your perspective.
When the Vols climbed to the highest of the polls for the primary time in 2022, it prompted an ESPN profile that known as them “bold, brash and on top of the college baseball world.” The story described their “fiery flair,” starting from gamers donning a pink “Daddy” cap and a mink coat after house runs to a full-on kneeling celebrations upon reaching second or third base, that “endeared itself to the orange-blooded Vols’ fans but rubbed plenty of rival fans, teams and coaches wrong.”
If that sounds in any respect like a newcomer to the Giants’ dugout late final season, effectively, he was quoted within the piece.
“Whether you like us or not, we don’t really care,” outfielder Drew Gilbert mentioned. “You don’t like us … well, all right, we’re still going to roll the way we roll.”
Gilbert, who shortly endeared himself to the San Francisco fanbase with the identical frenetic power he performed with at Tennessee, has been credited with being virtually as central to the tradition shift in Knoxville as Vitello, and now each will carry that to the Giants’ dugout.
San Francisco Giants’ Drew Gilbert (61) is doused with Gatorade by teammate Willy Adames (2) after defeating the Baltimore Orioles in a baseball recreation at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Space Information Group through AP)
They received’t be alone for lengthy. The Giants acquired Gilbert’s teammate at Tennessee, right-hander Blake Tidwell, in the identical commerce that introduced him to San Francisco, they usually spent their first-round decide on this previous draft on one other Vitello disciple, infielder Gavin Kilen.
Vitello himself was suspended 4 video games by the NCAA for chest-bumping an umpire throughout an argument in 2022.
That doesn’t essentially imply the entire faculty antics are coming to the usually more-reserved major-league dugout. Describing Vitello as “just a great players’ coach,” Burke mentioned, “He desires you to play your recreation, he desires you to be you.
“He never, like, went out of his way to be like, ‘Do these celebrations.’ He was always just like, ‘Go out there and be you. As long as it doesn’t get in the way of winning, you guys can have fun doing it.’”
He’s not the primary coach in his household
Vitello’s profession obtained its begin not removed from Oracle Park, not less than in comparison with Knoxville, because the affiliate head coach for the Salinas Packers of the California Collegiate League earlier than winding its method by way of the southeast, with stops on the staffs of Missouri (his alma mater), TCU and Arkansas earlier than arriving at Tennessee.
His life’s path, nevertheless, started at an earlier age, on the sidelines and within the dugouts of his father’s soccer and baseball video games. Greg Vitello coached at De Smet Excessive Faculty, exterior St. Louis, for 46 years and is a member of the Missouri Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
“It all came from my dad,” Vitello lately informed the Youth Inc. podcast.
Vitello described his dad as a “disciplinarian,” however he takes a distinct tact in his method. He pointed to Joe Maddon as a up to date affect, telling the podcast, “(he) really unlocked the ability for a lot of those guys be true to who they are as individuals,” on the Cubs’ 2016 World Sequence group.
“There’s a lot of downtime in baseball, so personality shouldn’t just be encouraged — it’s kind of a requirement,” Vitello mentioned. “There’s only 20 to 35 minutes of actual action that go on in the game, but the game could last three hours. So that time in the dugout, that time pregame, spitting seeds, the conversations that take place postgame, those are so crucial. … If you’re gonna have all that downtime, and personality is a key ingredient, (then) everybody should be very comfortable in their own skin.”
