Giants manager Tony Vilello talks with a player in the dugout during a spring training game between the San Francisco Giants and the Seattle Mariners at Peoria Stadium in Peoria, Ariz., on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. The Giants won 10-5 in Tony Vitello’s first win as a major league manager.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
If you think the San Francisco Giants will be watched closely on Wednesday, when they host the Yankees in the only game on the Opening Night schedule, get used to it.
All of baseball will be watching the Giants, not just in the opener but for the entire season, because the Tony Vitello experiment should be compelling theater.
Vitello — and, by extension, the team he manages — will be under the microscope.
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Vitello arrives from Tennessee with no pro experience in any form: not as a player, as a coach, as a minor leaguer, as a manager. The 2026 season is not only going to be a referendum on Vitello, but likely on the man who hired him, Buster Posey. The Giants president of baseball operations has taken a huge gamble on Vitello and we’re all going to see how and if it pays off.
Vitello will get his “welcome to the big leagues” introduction immediately. The Giants open with three games against the American League favorite Yankees, then head to division rival San Diego, before returning to host two N.L. East heavyweights — the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. The brutal April schedule also includes three home dates with the reigning world champions and recent Giants dominators, the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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The other day I heard F.P. Santangelo, part of the Giants broadcast team, say on KNBR that Vitello may be the most scrutinized manager in the history of baseball.
My first thought was, “Hold up, Frank Robinson — the first Black manager in baseball — might want a word.” But then I considered the times we live in, the overscrutiny of everything, the demand for hot takes, the lack of patience, and I figured Santangelo is probably correct. No one will be watched more and analyzed more — in real time — than Vitello.
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“We live in a gotcha society,” said Santangelo, who got to know Vitello at spring training and describes himself as a huge fan of his fellow Italian-American. “People are always looking for the negative. They’re always going to want to be critical. But I think it’s the most fascinating story in all of Major League Baseball this year.”
He’s not wrong about that. Vitello is doing something that’s never been done before and it will be riveting to watch how it unfolds: his learning curve, his players’ response to him, how opponents treat him. And his own reactions.
Vitello will need to grow a thick skin and not let any of the outside noise bother him, because there will be a lot of outside noise. In his short tenure with the Giants, Vitello has raised some eyebrows about his sensitivity, largely because of his self-created controversy early in spring training, when, unprovoked, he launched into a lengthy reflection about a four-month-old premature report that he was taking the Giants job. That was an indication he was letting outside perceptions bother him.
Hopefully he got that out of his system. Because if he gets riled up over every hot take or cheap shot that comes his way, it’s going to be a very long season — and it’s already much longer than anything he’s experienced. Plus, that kind of touchiness is something players’ notice — if their boss is more concerned about what is being said outside the clubhouse than inside.
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The Giants are desperately hoping to launch a new era following several years of uncharacteristic turmoil. After having just four managers in 34 years — Roger Craig, Dusty Baker, Felipe Alou and Bruce Bochy — the Giants are now on their fourth manager in eight years. A key figure has been fired in each of the past three seasons: Gabe Kapler, Farhan Zaidi and Bob Melvin. It’s an instability that isn’t familiar for the organization.
“We want Tony to be here for a long time and for Buster to do his thing for a long time,” CEO Larry Baer said. “We’re not a churn organization.
“We want these guys to be decadelong people. And they’re of the right age and at the points of their lives where they could be that. Having a guy here for two years or for three years, that’s not who we are. We’re long-term people.”
Vitello is 47. Posey is 38. If the partnership is successful, it could indeed be the start of a long-term relationship.
Despite being in the same division as the relentlessly soul-crushing Dodgers, the Giants have a lot of things going for them. Attendance is on the upswing, finally past the malaise caused by the combination of the pandemic and the mostly unappealing Zaidi years. The lineup, at least on paper, is the best the Giants have had in many years.
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Posey and the front office are counting on Vitello to bring a new energy and vitality to the recipe, elements that were sorely missing last season, when the Giants slumped badly, including a terrible stretch where they lost 13 of 14 games at home.
This is a fresh start. A new look. An unconventional approach.
And — get used to it — everyone will be watching.