Before Monday’s game against the Phillies, a reporter asked Vitello to assess the past week, which featured a 3-4 record but three straight losses to the Mets. In his answer, the Giants skipper revealed that three “minor” clubhouse incidents have already taken place this season.
“A couple things we were able to keep from you guys, which was great,” Vitello said, speaking to reporters from the dugout. “But if you lump those two, and the one you’re referencing, which is kind of the meeting on the mound, we’ve really only had three things that have been — I don’t want to say controversial ’cause that’s a mislabel — but kind of some intensity back and forth a little bit. We’ve played our best three games following that.”
While this comment came after a reporter’s question, revealing this clubhouse secret in a relatively unprompted manner is curious, to say the least. Perhaps the reason why Vitello brought this information out from behind closed doors is because, as he tells it, these moments all preceded the Giants’ three wins this season.
However, that silver lining doesn’t have much shine on it, especially since the context of the reporter’s question was a stretch of tough outings from Matt Chapman. It started earlier this month when the veteran third baseman was caught yelling “Catch the f—king ball” at Casey Schmitt during a mound visit in San Diego after Chapman’s throw sailed over the first baseman’s head. Then, on Sunday, Chapman was tagged out on an uncharacteristically ill-advised stolen base attempt in the ninth inning. Vitello’s spin on this was that these mistakes remind veterans like Chapman that “they’re human, and they’re a part of the deal, and there’s nothing wrong with anyone else holding them accountable.”
When the presser later returned to these incidents, a reporter asked for a quick clarification on where they all happened. Vitello insisted that these incidents were all minor and that the two moments behind closed doors were “more harmless” than what Chapman said to Schmitt on the mound. He also dropped another Vitello-ism in his response while talking about the media environment that allowed the Chapman-Schmitt moment to proliferate.
“Like, I wouldn’t be sitting here in college — I don’t know if you guys would be too — if there was Twitter or cameras all over the place,” Vitello said. “I might be in jail or something like that.”
The comment got a laugh from at least one reporter, so there’s another silver lining for the Giants throughout this early 3-7 season of struggles: The new manager’s charm hasn’t worn off on everybody just yet.