3:15pm: The choice on whether or not Vitello would be the subsequent supervisor of the Giants or not is predicted inside the subsequent 24 to 72 hours, in response to a report from ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Passan provides that whereas Vitello is the “high goal” of San Francisco at this level, the edges have but to succeed in a deal.
1:56pm: The Giants’ managerial search appears to be nearing an finish, with a shocking identify rising from the faculty ranks. The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, Brittany Ghiroli, and Ken Rosenthal report that “the Giants are closing in on hiring” College of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their subsequent skipper. Vitello instructed The Athletic by textual content that “there’s nothing to verify” in regards to the information, and the Giants additionally haven’t commented on the report.
The 47-year-old Vitello was an assistant baseball coach for Missouri (his alma mater), TCU, and Arkansas from 2003-2017 earlier than being employed for the highest job at Tennessee in June 2017. The Volunteers have since develop into an elite program, with a 341-131 document below Vitello’s watch and the college’s first NCAA nationwide championship in baseball in 2024. Past that Faculty World Collection victory, the Vols additionally reached the World Collection in each 2021 and 2023, and so they had been SEC regular-season and event champions in each 2022 and 2024.
Past this sterling document in NCAA baseball, nevertheless, Vitello has no expertise as a participant, coach, or supervisor in skilled baseball. There have been examples in recent times of groups reaching out to rent school coaches or assistants to large league teaching staffs, but hiring a supervisor with none expertise in an MLB group is a step past. Brewers skipper Pat Murphy is a notable instance of a present supervisor with a lot of school head teaching expertise, however as Baggarly/Ghiroli/Rosenthal observe, Murphy had a few years as a minor league supervisor and a giant league bench coach (to not point out a stint because the Padres’ interim supervisor) in between his NCAA work and his managerial job with the Brewers.
Vitello’s identify doesn’t come out of the blue, as Baggarly talked about him as a doable managerial candidate a bit of below three weeks in the past, when rumors had been swirling about Bob Melvin being on the best way out in San Francisco. Baggarly felt the Giants can be searching for “a youthful supervisor who operates with a excessive motor” as Melvin’s alternative, and the names linked to the group’s managerial search have typically match this description. Former Orioles supervisor Brandon Hyde and Royals third base coach Vance Wilson are each 52 years previous, and former catchers Kurt Suzuki and Nick Hundley are each 42 years previous.
With reference to Hundley, the Athletic reporters observe that he’s now “anticipated to stay in Texas” in his present job as a particular assistant to president of baseball operations Chris Younger. Previous studies indicated Hundley was a giant candidate and probably the front-runner for the San Francisco job, however Hundley will now stay with the Rangers. It isn’t recognized if the Giants merely most popular to go together with Vitello, or if Hundley could have taken himself out of the operating, as he did in 2023 when he was beforehand thought-about as a candidate for the Giants’ final managerial emptiness.
Assuming Vitello certainly results in San Francisco, it represents a daring transfer for each the coach and for the Giants group. Vitello can be “leaving the consolation of his fiefdom for a job that gives something however stability,” because the Athletic trio places it. From the attitude of president of baseball operations Buster Posey, changing a three-time MLB supervisor of the yr in Melvin with somebody fully new to professional baseball is a large swing for Posey’s very first managerial rent since taking up the Giants’ entrance workplace a yr in the past.
The Giants’ 107-win season in 2021 represents the group’s solely playoff look and successful document within the final 9 years, as San Francisco’s subsequent greatest marks had been 81-81 document in each 2022 and 2025. This season’s .500 document wasn’t sufficient for Posey within the wake of some large long-term acquisitions (Matt Chapman, Willy Adames, Rafael Devers) inside the final yr, and Melvin’s dismissal was the most recent step in Posey wanting to completely put his stamp on the franchise’s operations.
There can be no scarcity of fascinating subplots to a Vitello rent, probably the most urgent being merely how a school coach’s techniques can translate to motivating and main a clubhouse of seasoned main leaguers. Vitello’s NCAA credentials are nearly as good as anybody’s, however as we’ve seen numerous instances within the NFL, NBA, or NHL, teaching the skilled recreation is vastly completely different than being successful within the collegiate ranks. The Giants have had problem in luring top-tier free brokers prior to now, and it’s value questioning how these pursuits may very well be impacted with Vitello within the combine — would free brokers balk at enjoying below an inexperienced supervisor, or would Vitello’s recruiting strategies work as nicely on large leaguers as they do on blue-chip school prospects?
