Sources: Finalizing deal for Vitiello from Tennessee to be Giants manager
Tennessee coach Tony Vitiello is finalizing a deal to become the next head coach of the San Francisco Giants, sources told ESPN, marking the first time a major league team has selected a manager directly from a college program without any experience as a professional coach, sources told ESPN.
After days of negotiations in which Vitiello considered staying at Tennessee, where he won the men’s college world championship in 2024, an agreement is close to being finalized between the two sides. He will replace Bob Melvin, who was fired on September 29 after the 81-81 season, the Giants’ fourth straight year without a playoff berth.
Vitiello, 47, was considered one of the best coaches in college baseball, a high-energy recruiting wizard who built talent-packed teams and transformed a program that had struggled with mediocrity for decades. He has emerged as the Giants’ top target after former San Francisco catcher Nick Hundley withdrew from consideration.
In making Vitello his first managerial hire, San Francisco president of baseball operations Buster Posey is banking on Tennessee’s success translating to the major leagues. Sources said Vitiello was selected over former Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde and two other former major league players the Giants had interviewed, Kurt Suzuki and Vance Wilson, and distinguished himself as one of the nation’s premier coaches during a two-decade career as an assistant and head coach in college — enough that the Giants were willing to pay the $3 million buyout on His contract.
The closest replica of Vitello would be Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who spent 25 years coaching in college before joining the San Diego Padres as a minor league manager. Murphy then spent eight years as the Brewers’ bench coach before taking over as head coach in 2024, when he won National League Manager of the Year honors.
Vitello’s transition to the major leagues will come at a much faster pace. Outside of first place in the NL West in 2021, the Giants have finished third or worse in the division every year since 2017. Beyond the dominance of the Los Angeles Dodgers, evaluators view the Giants as a less talented team than San Diego and Arizona as well. San Francisco’s core of first baseman Rafael Devers, shortstop Willie Adams, and third baseman Matt Chapman is strong — and could be bolstered this winter with free agent spending, according to sources.
After more than 10 years as an assistant coach at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas, Vitello took over a moribund Tennessee program before the 2018 season and posted a 341-131 record, advancing to the Men’s College World Series in 2021, 2023 and 2024. With a pair of final picks in the first round and four second-round picks, Tennessee beat Texas A&M to win the school’s first national baseball championship last year.
Vitiello, whose boisterous personality endeared him at Tennessee and irritated other SEC schools, will enter a very different world in the MLB. While college careers are often determined by the success of recruiting classes, major league teams are created by baseball operations departments, relying on the manager for clubhouse cohesion, in-game decision-making, bullpen usage and day-to-day media interactions.
MLB teams’ reticence to engage in the college ranks for managers is long-established and runs counter to the hiring practices of other professional sports leagues. NFL teams have regularly selected head coaches from the college ranks, and in the NBA, there is no stigma attached to college coaches. Major league organizations have been more open to hiring coaches from college than managers. Pitching coach Wes Johnson left Arkansas to take on the same role with the Minnesota Twins in 2019; He left the Twins after three years to accept the pitching coach job at LSU before joining Georgia as its head coach before the 2024 season.
Vitiello’s philosophies on the game and character piqued Bossy’s interest and align with what the future Hall of Famer hopes to build in San Francisco, sources said. In an interview with ESPN in June, Vitiello said that his reputation as a rabble-rouser didn’t bother him, and that he had no plans to change his coaching style, which calls for pushing boundaries.
“I think you don’t know where the line is until you cross it. And then you adjust,” Vitiello said. “I don’t want our guys, if they give them a coloring book, I don’t want them to just color inside the lines. You know, come up with something different.”