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.
More to come…
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