Tony Vitello Nears Jump to the Major Leagues
Tennessee University baseball coach Tony Vitello is emerging as the leading candidate to manage the San Francisco Giants. A resolution on a possible agreement is expected within the next 24 to 72 hours. If an agreement is reached, Vitello would become the first manager in Major League history to go directly from a college program to the majors without experience in a professional organization. Vitello, 47, led Tennessee to win the 2024 Men’s College World Series title and is considered one of the best college baseball coaches. Would replace Bob Melvin, who was fired on September 29 after a season with an 81-81 record, the Giants’ fourth consecutive season without reaching the playoffs. San Francisco’s president of baseball operations, Buster Posey, has considered several candidates for manager, including former Giants catcher Nick Hundley and two other former Major League catchers, Kurt Suzuki and Vance Wilson. However, the Giants have focused their interest on Vitello, who has distinguished himself as one of the country’s most prominent recruiters and talent developers during a two-decade career as an assistant and head coach in college. The termination clause of his contract with Tennessee is $3 million, the same amount as his annual salary. The transition from college baseball to the professional level is uncommon, though not unprecedented. Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy spent 25 years coaching in college before joining the San Diego Padres, with whom he managed in the minor leagues. Murphy then spent eight years as a Brewers bench coach before taking over as manager in 2024, when he was named National League Manager of the Year. Vitello’s transition to the Major Leagues would occur at a much faster pace. He would inherit a Giants team competing in a very competitive National League West, with the division-winning Los Angeles Dodgers securing a spot in the World Series on Friday night. San Francisco boasts a core comprised of first baseman Rafael Devers, shortstop Willy Adames, and third baseman Matt Chapman, and is expected to be active in free agency this winter. After more than 10 years as an assistant coach at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas, Vitello took over a Tennessee program before the 2018 season and recorded a 341-131 record, advancing to the Men’s College World Series in 2021, 2023 and 2024. With a pair of first-round and four second-round picks, Tennessee defeated Texas A&M to win the school’s first national baseball championship in 2024. Vitello, whose boisterous personality endeared him in Tennessee and annoyed other SEC schools, would enter a different realm in MLB. While college jobs are often defined by the success of recruiting classes, Major League teams are built by baseball operations departments, with the manager depending on clubhouse cohesion, in-game decision-making, bullpen usage, and daily interactions with the media. The reluctance of MLB teams to turn to the college ranks for managers has been long established and has run counter to the hiring practices of other professional sports leagues. NFL teams have regularly recruited head coaches from the college ranks, and in the NBA, there is no stigma associated with college coaches. The closest case to Vitello’s hiring was in 2019, when pitching coach Wes Johnson left Arkansas to take the same position with the Minnesota Twins. Johnson left the Twins in 2022 to accept the pitching coach job at LSU before joining Georgia as their head coach a year later. Vitello’s philosophies on the game and his personality intrigued Posey and aligned with what the future Hall of Famer hopes to build in San Francisco, according to sources. In an interview in June, Vitello said that his reputation as a troublemaker didn’t bother him and that he had no plans to change his coaching approach, which required pushing boundaries.I don’t think you know where the line is until you cross it. And then you make an adjustment. I don’t want our guys, if they’re given a coloring book, I don’t want them to just color inside the lines. You know, come up with something different.
Tony Vitello
