The Giants Begin a New Era With The Hire of Tony Vitello

History Being Made

Now, some people might be questioning why the words “historic” and “unprecedented” are being used so frequently in this situation, and it’s simple. We’ve never seen a current head coach in college baseball make the jump directly to a big league manager job with no prior professional experience.

Pat Murphy is the closest thing we’ve seen, being the head coach at Arizona State University previously, but also spent eight years as the Brewers bench coach before being named their manager. Dick Howser is another close example, but before making the jump from Florida State to the Yankees, he played in MLB and was an interim managers for New York.

So while we have seen previous college coaches get big league manager jobs, Vitello heads to San Francisco never working within professional baseball in any facet, making this a truly groundbreaking hire by the Giants.

Brand New Direction

Now, there’s always some concern when you take such a big swing of a decision, like Posey just did. How does Vitello handle a big league bullpen? How does he transition from the roughly 60 game schedule of NCAA to 162 consecutive games? How does he handle major league, million-dollar egos?

These are all valid questions that we’ll get some answers to shortly into the 2026 campaign. However, there are some things we do know about Vitello and what he brings to the table.

We can’t talk about the College World Series winning coach without bringing up the energy he brings to the table every day. The baseball world was re-intorduced to Drew Gilbert’s style of baseball towards the end of 2025 and it’s safe to say Vitello is the “Drew Gilbert” of managers.

Now, Gilbert is reunited with his college skipper on the biggest of stages. As a matter of fact, Andrew Baggarly, the Giants’ insider for The Athletic had this to say on KNBR, a radio station local to the San Francisco area.

“I don’t know if any of this happens without Drew Gilbert, I really don’t”

– Andrew Baggarly via KNBR680

Not to mention, San Francisco’s system if full of former Volunteers. Whether you look at right-hander Blade Tidwell, infielder Maui Ahuna, or this year’s 13th overall pick, Gavin Kilen, there’s a lot of familiarity for Vitello within the farm.

We also know that Posey and Vitello are like-minded on one major aspect of today’s game. Vitello recently stated that he sees “less development, less coaching, less accountability and therefore less understanding of how to actually play the game to win” going all the way up to the big leagues on an episode of Greg Olsen’s Youth Inc. podcast.

Posey, on the other hand, has been outspoken on the surplus of fundamental mistakes that the Giants have struggled with over the past few years. Likely a big talking point between the two in interviews and when they speculatively met at Coors field back in September.

Above all, Vitello knows how to win. In just eight seasons at the helm of the Volunteers’ baseball program, he completely turned around what used to be a bottom-of-the-barrel school in terms of SEC baseball.

Whether you look at the 341-131 overall record, five super regional appearances, three college World Series appearances, 42 draft picks since 2021 (most in the country), or the National Championship in 2024, Vitello has repeatedly pushed the right buttons in Knoxville.

Posey is surely hoping that the 47-year-old skipper can work his magic for a similar turnaround with a San Francisco team that finished at .500 in 2025 and has been mediocre for the better part of a decade now.

Final Thoughts

While there’s still a lot of work to do to shore up the entire coaching staff, Posey has the first – and most important – piece locked into place. Because of Vitello’s lack of experience, one could only assume he’ll have a say in who rounds out the rest of the staff.

However, one thing is for sure. The San Francisco Giants organization its entering a new era under a different type of manager. Instead of the old school, experienced hire, they bring in a guy with no past in professional baseball and a more fiery personality.

In a loaded division, San Francisco is going out of the box to try and stay afloat. No one knows if Vitello is going to succeed in Major League Baseball but the Giants and Posey finally get their guy.

With Posey steering the ship, San Francisco is done chasing the ghost of the 2010s and ready for a brand new era of baseball. While the organization may not have played it safe, they played to win.