University of Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello has emerged as the frontrunner for the San Francisco Giants managerial job, and a resolution on a potential deal is expected in the next 24 to 72 hours, sources tell ESPN, confirming multiple reports.
If both sides agree to a contract, Vitello would become the first manager in major league history to jump directly from a college program to the big leagues without experience in a professional organization.
Vitello, 47, led Tennessee to a College World Series title in 2024 and is considered one of the best coaches in college baseball. He replaced Bob Melvin, who was fired on September 29 after an 81–81 season, which was the Giants’ fourth consecutive season without a playoff berth.
San Francisco President of Baseball Operations buster posey The Giants have considered several managerial candidates, among them former Giants catcher Nick Hundley and a pair of other big league catchers, Kurt Suzuki and Vance Wilson. The Giants have instead developed their interest in Vitello, who has distinguished himself as one of the nation’s premier recruiters and talent developers during a two-decade career as an assistant and head coach in college.
The buyout on his deal at Tennessee is $3 million, equal to his annual salary, sources said.
The move from college to professional baseball is rare, though not unprecedented. milwaukee brewers Manager Pat Murphy spent 25 years in college before joining San Diego PadresWith whom he was successful in the minor leagues. Murphy spent eight years as the Brewers’ bench coach before taking over as manager in 2024, when he won the National League Manager of the Year award.
Vitello’s transition to the major leagues will be much more rapid. He will inherit a veteran team competing in a National League West loaded with division-winners los angeles dodgers Clinching a spot in the World Series on Friday night. San Francisco returns a core of first basemen rafael deversshortstop Willie Adams and third baseman matt chapman And is expected to be active in free agency this winter, sources said.
After working for more than 10 years as an assistant coach at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas, Vitello took over the moribund Tennessee program prior to the 2018 season and compiled a 341–131 record, leading them to the College World Series in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Ultimately with a pair of first-round picks and four second-rounders, Tennessee defeated Texas A&M to win the school title. First baseball national championship.
Vitello, whose boisterous personality attracted him to Tennessee and irked other SEC schools, will be entering an entirely different arena in MLB. While college jobs are often defined by the success of recruiting classes, major league teams are built by baseball-operations departments, in which the manager is trusted with clubhouse cohesion, in-game decision-making, use of the bullpen, and daily media interactions.
The reticence of MLB teams for managers to enter the college ranks is long established and is in contrast to the recruiting practices of other professional sports leagues. NFL teams routinely hire head coaches from the college ranks, and in the NBA, there is no stigma attached to college coaches. The closest replication of Vitello’s hiring was in 2019, when pitching coach Wes Johnson left the University of Arkansas for the same role. minnesota twinsJohnson left the Twins in 2022 to accept the pitching-coach job at LSU before joining Georgia as head coach a year later.
Sources said Vitello’s philosophy on sports and personality appealed to Posey and he became involved with the hope of building a future Hall of Fame in San Francisco. In an interview with ESPN in June, Vitello said that his reputation as a rioter did not bother him and that he had no plans to change his approach to coaching, which requires boundary-pushing.
Vitello said, “I think you don’t know where the line is until you cross it. And then you make adjustments.” “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.”
