San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello and Philadelphia Phillies right fielder/first baseman Bryce Harper
Tony Avelar/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images and Brandon Sloter/Getty Images
Manager Tony Vitello watches as catcher Andrew Susac (6) is interviewed after the San Francisco Giants defeated the New York Mets 7-2 at Oracle Park in San Francisco, on Thursday, April 2, 2026.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper gestures after hitting a single against the San Francisco Giants during the sixth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Tuesday, April 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Jeff Chiu/Associated Press
In 2024, Tony Vitello posted a picture to Instagram with Bryce Harper. The picture is of the pair riding horses at a ranch, grinning. The image spread online.
San Francisco Giants manager Vitello and Phillies star slugger Harper had no obvious ties to one another other than baseball. Harper was drafted in 2010 and didn’t play in Division I college ball, where Vitello had created a name for himself coaching at Missouri, Texas Christian, Arkansas and Tennessee.
But the two crossed paths over the years and found plenty of common ground. Harper bought a home in Knoxville, Tenn., around the same time Vitello and the Tennessee Volunteers were becoming a college baseball powerhouse. That both handle their roles in baseball with a particular flair drew them together as friends.
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Vitello has since deleted that Instagram post. The manager and two-time NL MVP are still friends. When Vitello took the Giants job, Harper was one of the big leaguers who offered Vitello advice on how to handle MLB players. But as the new season has progressed, friendliness takes a back seat to competition.
“It’s fun being around him, seeing him,” Vitello said. “I like seeing him do well, just not against us. Ultimately when the game starts — it’s somebody wearing a different uniform. I know that guy, Harper, there’s no friends in the other dugout when the game starts. For me it’s just about rallying together as a group and the guys that are all wearing the same uniform.”
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Vitello said there was a bit of friendly banter with Harper earlier this month when the Giants took the series win from Harper’s Phillies at Oracle Park. Now the Giants head to Harper’s turf in Philadelphia for a three-game series that begins Tuesday.
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“It’s more heated than what I’m used to,” Vitello said. “Maybe by Day 3 of a series there are a few things that have gone on that build into a storyline, but at the end of the day it’s cool for guys to go out of their way.”
The storylines following the Phillies and Giants are different than they were when these teams initially met on April 6. The Giants were 3-8 under their new manager and hadn’t won a series while the Phillies were 6-4, off to a promising start as expected of a team built to contend for a postseason spot.
Things for both teams have shifted since. The Giants are coming up for air, winners of three straight series against the Miami Marlins, Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals. They’re 13-15, winners of seven of their past 10 with key guys such as Jung Hoo Lee emerging with a hot bat.
The Phillies, on the other hand, are fresh off a 10-game losing streak — their longest since 1999 — that they only snapped with an extra-inning win over the Atlanta Braves in starter Zack Wheeler’s healthy return to the mound. They’ve dropped to 9-19.
Harper is off to a decent start, batting .260 with six home runs, but the offense around him has floundered. The Phillies as a team are batting .219 with a .656 OPS, both figures sit toward the bottom among all teams in the majors.
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The Giants aren’t much better. Their collective .668 OPS is third worst in baseball, but their inconsistencies — highs and lows — are best put in perspective with how the Phillies and other teams with higher expectations are faring this month. As the novelty of Vitello’s arrival in MLB wears off, wins and losses are coming to the fore, and the Giants’ situation is less under the national microscope.
The New York Mets took three of four in their initial series against the Giants, but have tumbled down the standings along with the Phillies. New York boasts one of the highest payrolls in baseball (second only to the Dodgers), with hefty paychecks going to Juan Soto and new additions Bo Bichette and Luis Robert Jr. But the Mets are nevertheless 9-19, tied with the Phillies for last place in the NL East thanks to a 12-game losing streak, and losers of eight of their past 10. They were just swept over the weekend by the Rockies.
Falling short of expectations isn’t just happening in the NL East. Over in the American League, the Boston Red Sox look to be an organization without much direction, having fired manager Alex Cora and a group of coaches amid their underwhelming 11-17 start. Cora led the Red Sox to their last World Series title in 2018, and they won 89 games last year, good enough for a wild-card berth.
Boston isn’t the only messy situation in the AL. The Houston Astros may have a potent offense, but have one of the worst-performing pitching staffs with a league-worst 5.97 ERA heading into Monday’s games. They’ve tumbled to the bottom of the AL West, where the Sacramento A’s sit in first place.
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With May on the horizon, the sometimes confusing start to the Vitello era isn’t the only story going in baseball. Another series against the struggling Phillies and Vitello’s friend Harper will test how much these Giants are righting their ship and their season.