Elsewhere on the topic of managers on the hot seat, Tony Vitello should not be one of those guys. He’s only one month into his first year skippering the Giants, after all.
However, it’s fair to at least wonder about the warmth of Vitello’s seat. The Giants are only 13-16 with a -24 run differential. FanGraphs has their odds of making the playoffs down to 22.3 percent.
A good chunk of the blame here lies with Buster Posey’s roster construction, as the Giants are almost at the same luxury tax level as the Astros. But Vitello hasn’t exactly been part of the solution, and has at least been a distraction with the way he speaks to both his team and the media.
When the Giants hired Vitello out of the college ranks despite a total lack of professional experience, it was so outside the box as to seem genius. As a proof of concept, though, his first month in charge of the Giants just isn’t very inspiring.
As he’s a young guy who dealt with young players at Tennessee, Vitello might have fit best in the majors with a young, up-and-coming roster. The Giants don’t have one of those, and it’s indeed notable that their slow start has roots in poor performances by veterans like Rafael Devers and Willy Adames.
There’s still lots of time for Vitello and the Giants to right the ship, of course. But if they don’t, a downstream effect on other college coaches hoping to leap to MLB might be unavoidable.