SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants are giving it the old college try.
Here’s the thing, though: There’s nothing old about their strategy in hiring an MLB manager.
They hope Tony Vitello’s success as an NCAA Division I baseball coach, including over the past eight seasons with the Tennessee Volunteers, will translate to the major leagues.
Buster Posey, the MLB team’s president of baseball operations, is making an unprecedented gamble on a coach with no previous experience in the pros. The 47-year-old Vitello will make the jump to the Giants and Major League Baseball after spending his entire career in the college ranks.
“Tony is one of the brightest, most innovative and most respected coaches in college baseball today,” Posey said in a release announcing the hire Wednesday. “Throughout our search, Tony’s leadership, competitiveness and commitment to developing players stood out.”
Posey said the Giants look forward to the energy and direction Vitello brings, given that his passion for baseball aligns with the club’s values.
“I’m incredibly honored and grateful for this opportunity,” the 47-year-old St. Louis native said in the Giants’ announcement. “I’m excited to lead this group of players and represent the San Francisco Giants. I can’t wait to get started and work to establish a culture that makes Giants’ faithful proud.”
Vitello had guided the Vols to regular success in the Southeastern Conference and beyond since being hired in June 2017. That included leading the program to its first national championship in 2024 — one of three College World Series trips during his time in Knoxville — to go with six regional appearances, five NCAA super regional berths, two SEC regular-season championships and two SEC tournament titles.
During his Tennessee tenure, 10 players from the school were selected in the first round of the MLB draft, with 52 Vols selected overall during that span. Among those is Giants outfielder Drew Gilbert.
Seeking a new voice and direction after the Giants missed the playoffs for a fourth straight year, Posey said he wouldn’t rule out anyone in his search for a leader with what he called an “obsessive” work ethic and attention to detail.
Posey had also considered his former backup catcher Nick Hundley, who has been working as a special assistant to Texas Rangers general manager Chris Young.
Instead, Posey — a former catcher himself, he spent his entire MLB career with the Giants, playing for the National League West Division franchise from 2009-2021 — is taking a route once tapped by the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys with Miami Hurricanes coach Jimmy Johnson in 1989. That worked out with Johnson winning two Super Bowl championships in 1992 and 1993 during a career that to a place for him in halls of fame for both college and pro football.
Posey is striving for stability at manager after so much turnover for the franchise in recent years, including Posey taking over his current role last fall when Farhan Zaidi was fired.
The Giants dismissed manager Bob Melvin after two years, and Posey quickly ruled out former longtime San Francisco skipper Bruce Bochy as an option to replace him once the 70-year-old parted ways with Texas after a three-year stint that included the 2023 World Series title — his fourth, with the first three coming with the Giants in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
San Francisco finished 81-81 this year for one more victory than in Melvin’s first season. They haven’t reached the postseason since winning the NL West with a franchise-record 107 victories to edge the rival Dodgers by one game in 2021 under skipper Gabe Kapler.
What will really happen with a college coach, even a highly successful one like Vitello, moving into an MLB dugout with no transition role is anyone’s guess.
Longtime executive Harry Dalton thought the jump to MLB manager would be too big at once, so he hired Arizona State coach Bobby Winkles as a coach on the California Angels’ staff for the 1972 season under Del Rice. Winkles then replaced Rice as manager in 1973.
Two National Baseball Hall of Famers who managed in the big leagues were college coaches.
Hughie Jennings was player-coach at St. Bonaventure from 1894-97, then managed the Detroit Tigers from 1907-20 and the New York Giants in 1924-25.
Casey Stengel coached the University of Mississippi in 1914 before being hired for his first MLB managing job with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1934.
What’s more certain is that in Vitello, the Giants will have a colorful and brash manager.
The NCAA suspended Vitello twice during his Tennessee tenure, first for spending too much time arguing a call in 2018. During that two-game suspension, he raised money for charity with a pizza and lemonade stand while the Vols played.
Chest-bumping an umpire in 2022 led to a four-game suspension, and Vitello spent that time working with a Tennessee fraternity offering a chest bump to anyone donating $2 to the Wounded Warriors Project.
Vitello is no stranger to Northern California. In 2002, he was associate head coach of the Salinas Packers in the California Collegiate League. The team went 50-14 and reached the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas.
He played three seasons at Missouri as an infielder and began his coaching career there before stints with TCU and Arkansas, the latter as hitting coach.
Vitello went 341—131 at Tennessee. In his second season in 2019, he led the Vols to their first NCAA tournament berth since 2005. Vitello then led the Vols to their first national title in baseball at the 2024 College World Series.
In Knoxville, he leaves behind a program in much better shape than when he arrived. Tennessee is finishing up an expansion and renovation of its baseball stadium to meet interest in the program.
Vitello was earning $3 million a year and signed a five-year contract extension in 2024 that includes a $3 million buyout.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White congratulated Vitello on the job and said university officials were focused on players and the coaching staff in an “evolving process” while they finalize the next steps to replace him.
“We are committed to continuously investing in the program at a championship level across all areas,” White said. “Furthermore, the upcoming $109 million renovation of Lindsey Nelson Stadium will transform it into one of the premier baseball venues.”