SAN FRANCISCO -- New Giants manager Tony Vitello never dreamed of playing in the big leagues.
The son of a legendary high school baseball and soccer coach in St. Louis, Vitello grew up around the game and managed to earn a spot as a walk-on infielder at the University of Missouri, but he was always realistic about his ceiling.
“My skill level wasn’t very high,” Vitello said. “I think it was just so far above the clouds that I never even saw it.”
Like his father Greg, Vitello ended up finding his true calling in coaching, a profession he transitioned into almost immediately after his playing career ended at Mizzou. He got his first official coaching gig with the Salinas Packers of the California Coastal League in 2002, sparking a 23-year journey that would take him to the summit of college baseball at the University of Tennessee before eventually leading him back to Northern California, where he made history by becoming the first manager to jump directly from a college dugout to the Majors when he was hired by the Giants last week.
“For me as a coach, I was just trying to make my way,” Vitello said during his introductory press conference at Oracle Park on Thursday. “I got thrust into a position at a young age that I probably didn’t even deserve. I was just trying to do a good job. Fortunately, it helped get me to the next spot and the next spot and the next spot. Eventually, this did become a dream, where I just kind of decided, if I was blessed enough to receive an opportunity, this is something I wanted to do before I was done coaching in general.
“Now, I’m incredibly humbled and blessed to do so. It is a dream come true, but it’s a very recent dream. It wasn’t one I had for a while.”
The Giants know they’re taking a risk by hiring the 47-year-old Vitello, but they believe he’s the right person to lead the franchise into a new era and restore a winning culture in San Francisco, which is coming off a .500 season and has missed the playoffs in eight of the past nine years.
Vitello certainly has experience turning teams around, as he transformed Tennessee from a mediocre SEC program into a national powerhouse over the last eight years and led the Volunteers to their first College World Series title in 2024.
“This guy’s a winner,” president of baseball operations Buster Posey said. “He has a vision to be great, not just for himself. That’s going to rub off on those around him. There’s an expectation that he’ll get the best from everybody that he comes into contact with. Tony’s a teacher. He’s a motivator, a tireless worker and someone who understands how to build culture.
“I’m thrilled to have Tony as our manager. I have high confidence that together we can build something really special here in San Francisco.”
Posey credited general manager Zack Minasian for being the first to float Vitello as a possible candidate for the Giants’ manager job, which opened up after the club decided to part ways with Bob Melvin at the end of the 2025 season.
Posey didn’t have much background with Vitello at that point -- the two spoke prior to the MLB Draft and met briefly when the Giants made a trip to Coors Field in September -- but he was intrigued by Vitello’s success at Tennessee, which has sent dozens of players into the pro ranks in recent years, including Giants outfielder Drew Gilbert and shortstop Gavin Kilen, the club’s 2025 first-round Draft pick.
“As much as this feels out of the box, Tony’s name has been bouncing around Major League Baseball for a while,” Minasian said.
Posey said it wasn’t easy to get a hold of Vitello, who was busy running fall scrimmages at Knoxville and bouncing from city to city on recruiting visits this month. Still, Vitello’s deep commitment to Tennessee only gave Posey more confidence that the longtime college coach would be ready to embrace a new challenge with the Giants.
“I certainly came away from that having the sense that when this guy goes after something, he’s going to go at it,” Posey said.
Vitello’s initial reaction to Posey’s overtures?
“I kind of just said, ‘Oh hell,’ to myself,” Vitello recalled. “Here we go. This could be something.”
As part of the interview process, Posey had Vitello speak with two former Giants managers -- Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy -- both of whom came away with positive impressions of the club’s unconventional managerial candidate.
Vitello needed several days to think over the decision after the Giants officially extended him an offer, but in the end, he couldn’t resist the allure of the big leagues.
“This ultimately became about a personal challenge,” Vitello said. “The organization and the people that I’d be surrounded with kind of put it over the top for me.”
Vitello will undoubtedly face his share of skeptics given his lack of professional experience, but the Giants believe he’s worth the gamble, so much so that they were willing to cover his $3 million buyout at Tennessee and give him a three-year contract that will reportedly pay him $3.5 million per year and includes a vesting option for a fourth season.
“There’s going to be uncertainties and risk with any hire,” Posey said. “This one’s probably more than a lot of other places we could have gone. But I’m betting on the person.”