{"id":244764,"date":"2025-10-23T00:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T00:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/244764\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T00:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T00:11:12","slug":"what-buster-posey-saw-in-the-san-francisco-giants-new-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/244764\/","title":{"rendered":"What Buster Posey saw in the San Francisco Giants’ new manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no other way to describe the 40th manager in the history of the San Francisco Giants<\/a> besides unprecedented.<\/p>\n

Never before has a coach gone directly from the college ranks to the major leagues with no prior experience, but Tony Vitello will do exactly that when he is introduced as the Giants\u2019 next manager at Oracle Park next Thursday. The club announced the groundbreaking hire<\/a> Wednesday, three weeks after president of baseball operations Buster Posey decided to fire Bob Melvin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time, Posey said the Giants were seeking \u201ca different voice\u201d to go in a \u201cdifferent direction,\u201d and did they ever.<\/p>\n

Whereas Melvin was a milquetoast mainstay with two decades of experience as a major-league manager, Vitello arrives as a 47-year-old firebrand who neither played nor coached at any level of professional baseball. What he has done is transform a once-downtrodden college program into perennial winners \u2014 and looked cool doing it.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/a>FILE – Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, center, hoists the championship trophy following his team’s 6-5 victory against Texas A&M in Game 3 of the NCAA College World Series baseball finals in Omaha, Neb., June 24, 2024. (AP Photo\/Rebecca S. Gratz, File)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Whether that translates to the big leagues remains to be seen, but Vitello has gotten plenty of votes of confidence from those who know him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe makes you want to go to the field everyday,\u201d said Blake Burke, the Oakland-born first baseman on Vitello\u2019s 2024 title team at Tennessee. \u201cYou go there, and you have fun. There\u2019s just something in the air when you go to the field. The culture is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burke, a De La Salle graduate who just completed his first pro season in the Milwaukee Brewers organization said he was \u201csurprised\u201d to see the news. Not because of its never-before-seen nature or that the Giants offered him the job \u2014 but that he left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how it\u2019s going to translate and all that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut whatever he\u2019s done, he\u2019s been successful doing it. \u2026 He\u2019s a great guy off the field and a competitor on the field. I feel like that\u2019s exactly what you want out of your coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another Division I college coach whose team played against the Volunteers and knows people around the program said he believed Vitello was fit make the jump because \u201cas a relentless competitor and elite recruiter, he knows how to identify talent and bring out the best in people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Max Scherzer, who could be a free-agent target this offseason, was at Missouri when Vitello was the pitching coach and developed a lasting bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely believe in him,\u201d he told Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. \u201cHe\u2019s to this day one of my closest friends and I absolutely believe he\u2019s gonna get it done at the big league level.\u201d<\/p>\n

The decision will define Posey\u2019s era atop the baseball side of the organization, just as the less-out-of-the-box hire of Gabe Kapler did for Farhan Zaidi before him. So, before Vitello dons the Giants jersey for the first time next week, it\u2019s worth exploring how he got here, what drives him and why he is the candidate Posey landed on to lead his version of the San Francisco Giants.<\/p>\n

He turned around Tennessee<\/p>\n

The Giants and Volunteers share more than the color orange.<\/p>\n

When Vitello took over the Tennessee program in 2017, it had been more than a decade since its last College World Series appearance. Likewise, the Giants have been mired in mediocrity, finishing around .500 and missing the playoffs the past four seasons.<\/p>\n

\"Tennessee<\/a>Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, left, cheers on his players in the fifth inning of an NCAA college baseball tournament super regional game against Southern Mississippi, Sunday, June 11, 2023, in Hattiesburg, Miss. The game was a continuation of Saturday’s play which was suspended due to weather concerns. (AP Photo\/Rogelio V. Solis)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vitello transformed Tennessee into an SEC powerhouse. They returned to the NCAA tournament in 2019, made it back to Omaha in 2021 and won it all in 2024. In eight seasons in Knoxville, Vitello accumulated a record of 341-131, a .722 winning percentage.<\/p>\n

Now, the Giants will ask him to do the same \u2014 only in the big leagues.<\/p>\n

\u2018He could talk, for sure\u2019<\/p>\n

According to multiple reports, Vitello blew Posey away during the interview process.<\/p>\n

He showed off the same personality that he put to use on the recruiting trail, pulling in the top-ranked classes in the nation the past two seasons, according to Perfect Game. That\u2019s one area exclusive to college baseball, and the Giants\u2019 roster already has a strong foundation.<\/p>\n

Still, the team hasn\u2019t quite shaken the narrative that it struggles to sell San Francisco as a destination for marquee free agents. Vitello will have to change up his pitch a little (darken the shade of orange on the slide deck, at least), but maybe those skills translate to free agency meetings.<\/p>\n

When the Volunteers would hit a skid, Vitello was the type of manager who would \u201ctry everything,\u201d Burke said. He didn\u2019t hesitate to call team meetings and address the clubhouse. Often, it was convincing stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe could talk, for sure,\u201d Burke said. \u201cHe\u2019s really good with words. \u2026 He\u2019s just a great leader, a great people\u2019s coach. He connected well with people and just created a good culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s just a great players\u2019 coach\u2019<\/p>\n

The culture at Tennessee established under Vitello became stuff of legend, or infamy, depending on your perspective.<\/p>\n

When the Vols climbed to the top of the polls for the first time in 2022, it prompted an ESPN profile<\/a> that called them \u201cbold, brash and on top of the college baseball world.\u201d The story described their \u201cfiery flair,\u201d ranging from players donning a pink \u201cDaddy\u201d cap and a mink coat after home runs to a full-on kneeling celebrations upon reaching second or third base, that \u201cendeared itself to the orange-blooded Vols\u2019 fans but rubbed plenty of rival fans, teams and coaches wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

If that sounds at all like a newcomer to the Giants\u2019 dugout late last season, well, he was quoted in the piece.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you like us or not, we don\u2019t really care,\u201d outfielder Drew Gilbert said. \u201cYou don\u2019t like us \u2026 well, all right, we\u2019re still going to roll the way we roll.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert, who quickly endeared himself to the San Francisco fanbase with the same frenetic energy he played with at Tennessee, has been credited with being almost as central to the culture shift in Knoxville as Vitello, and now both will bring that to the Giants\u2019 dugout.<\/p>\n

\"San<\/a>San Francisco Giants’ Drew Gilbert (61) is doused with Gatorade by teammate Willy Adames (2) after defeating the Baltimore Orioles in a baseball game at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sunday, Aug. 31, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group via AP)\u00a0<\/p>\n

They won\u2019t be alone for long. The Giants acquired Gilbert\u2019s teammate at Tennessee, right-hander Blake Tidwell, in the same trade that brought him to San Francisco, and they spent their first-round pick in this past draft on another Vitello disciple, infielder Gavin Kilen.<\/p>\n

Vitello himself was suspended four games by the NCAA for chest-bumping an umpire during an argument in 2022.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t necessarily mean all of the college antics are coming to the typically more-reserved major-league dugout. Describing Vitello as \u201cjust a great players\u2019 coach,\u201d Burke said, \u201cHe wants you to play your game, he wants you to be you.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never, like, went out of his way to be like, \u2018Do these celebrations.\u2019 He was always just like, \u2018Go out there and be you. As long as it doesn\u2019t get in the way of winning, you guys can have fun doing it.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the first coach in his family<\/p>\n

Vitello\u2019s career got its start not far from Oracle Park, at least compared to Knoxville, as the associate head coach for the Salinas Packers of the California Collegiate League before winding its way through the southeast, with stops on the staffs of Missouri (his alma mater), TCU and Arkansas before arriving at Tennessee.<\/p>\n

His life\u2019s path, however, began at an earlier age, on the sidelines and in the dugouts of his father\u2019s soccer and baseball games. Greg Vitello coached at De Smet High School, outside St. Louis, for 46 years and is a member of the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all came from my dad,\u201d Vitello recently told the Youth Inc. podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vitello described his dad as a \u201cdisciplinarian,\u201d but he takes a different tact in his approach. He pointed to Joe Maddon as a contemporary influence, telling the podcast, \u201c(he) really unlocked the ability for a lot of those guys be true to who they are as individuals,\u201d on the Cubs\u2019 2016 World Series team.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of downtime in baseball, so personality shouldn\u2019t just be encouraged \u2014 it\u2019s kind of a requirement,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cThere\u2019s only 20 to 35 minutes of actual action that go on in the game, but the game could last three hours. So that time in the dugout, that time pregame, spitting seeds, the conversations that take place postgame, those are so crucial. \u2026 If you\u2019re gonna have all that downtime, and personality is a key ingredient, (then) everybody should be very comfortable in their own skin.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is no other way to describe the 40th manager in the history of the San Francisco Giants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[10832,1558,3805,2356,10833,1915,10831,2558,363,10836,2329,28512,10839,10840,10843,99],"class_list":["post-244764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-alameda-county","tag-baseball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-contra-costa-county","tag-east-bay","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mlb","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-san-jose","tag-san-mateo-county","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}