Breaking News: Tony Vitello Leaves Tennessee to Manage the San Francisco Giants

Breaking News: Tony Vitello Leaves Tennessee to Manage the San Francisco Giants

Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello is now going to be the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Jacob Rudder from Baseball America talking about how this is a landmark move and he’s the first manager to be hired directly from the college ranks with no pro experience. Before we dive into this, I just want to let everyone know Baseball America hot sheet. We covered this so you can go over there later and check out more clips on the topic. We also did a story with Susan Sleser, a YouTube clip yesterday, and there was another conversation that we had. But let’s keep it going. I’ll add one more new bit of news from Bob Nightingale. He said he’s going to take a pay cut. Wow. 3.3 mil salary and benefits is what he was currently making at Tennessee. Bob said, “Don’t forget Bob Melvin is still on contract for 2026 at $4 million.” I don’t really care. I mean that’s pretty common where but he’s just pointing out that at least according to his sources Tony Vitella will make less per season to start here with San Francisco even more play pro ball. No n he did not play. He has no pro experience at all. Yeah. Like not even like I can like at least Murf played a little bit you know Murf coached for a while and he went from you know then he was a bench coach before you know he did a bunch of things in the minor leagues managing the minor leagues and stuff before he got a job. But to go right from college to to big leagues man I don’t know kid you’re going to have to talk on this. I didn’t go to college, but you don’t have to run a spring training college. You can’t threaten kids with, “Hey, if you don’t if you don’t do what I say, I’ll make you transfer and take your scholarship.” There’s none of that. You get what you get in college. You get to pick the players, man. You get to say, “I’m recruiting you and I’m recruiting you and I’m recruiting you.” And in the big leagues, they just say, “Here’s your team. Go play with them.” And it’s short term, too, in college. I mean, in the big leagues, sometimes you might have a guy for 10 years. You got to be really careful about how you manage relationships. All right, so enough from us. Kip played college ball and you actually played for Pat Murphy who did not do this a direct route. Brewers manager spent plenty of time in the big leagues bench coached the whole deal. But anyway, give us the context of how you think this is going to play out. Uh I think it’s going to play out it’s going to play out well, but it’s because the same way for Murf. Murf is a players manager. He is someone who gets the team together. You want to play hard for him. People guys like playing for Murf. I think that’s the big thing here that I’ve seen with uh Mattello is it looks like guys like playing for him. He’s going to have his bumps and bruises on how to run uh uh the big league team compared to a college team obviously. Uh but this kind of strikes me as and I want to get both yours thoughts on this right back to you. Is this a he checks the box of players want to play for him like a Murf, but this is also where uh a new guy with no grounds or no pillars to stand on can kind of be just a yes man for the front office to make the lineups and all that stuff too. Well, that’s what we don’t know. The most fascinating thing to me is sounds like a little bit to me and I don’t want to discredit the before he’s even started or anything like that or saying that he can’t make his own moves, but it’s like you see a lot of front offices and kind of where the the old school where the manager makes all the decisions just isn’t isn’t around as much. Well, you go from making all the decisions to making almost no decisions, right? As a from a college to a ma big league manager. I’m not saying you don’t make any decisions, but they’re they’re limited. But it’ll still be a players guy that that enjoys it and looks like he’s had success wherever he’s gone and looks like guys will like to play for him. So when you check that box, front office sees that and then they can just do the other stuff that they want to do. It’s I the the hiring makes sense. Yeah. But that can only take you so far being a being a nice guy. I mean, come on. I played for you played for nice guys. I played for nice guys. Guys you want to play for Robin Ventura was the nicest guy in the world. Yeah. And you want to play for him, but he wasn’t a great manager. Like that that’s to me is you have to have that. Joe Madden people loved playing for. Some people hated playing for Joe Madden, but he got the most out of people and he knew how to do that. This guy I like having a guy with he has managerial experience whether it’s it is at the college level. So he is going to have to see the the nuances of the game and how different it is from the big leagues to the college game. But um I do like someone with managerial experience over maybe say a former player to start right away. My two cents. The biggest thing is who’s who’s he going to hire? Who’s he gonna hire as a coach? That’s a huge He’s got to have veteran coaches, right? He’s got to have a veteran bench coach, veteran pitching coaches, guys that have been around because if he just goes out and says, “Oh, I’m just going to bring my Tennessee staff over here.” And they’re like, “Hey, spring training starts next week. What’s the plan? Oh, we’ll just scrimmage every day like they do in college.” Like, that’s not how it works. Exactly. You know, like that’s where it’s going to be. How do I run a bullpen? You know, in the big leagues, you have 26 guys. In college, you have Well, it used to be like 40 guys. Now, it’s down to 36, I think. Yeah. so many more options. You know, guys only pitch once a week. Who do I set up here and there? I’m not I don’t have to recruit guy. I don’t know. It’s gonna It’s fascinating to me. It’s a fascinating hire, good or bad, however it works out. Here’s the one thing where I disagree with people that say, “Why would he lead there? I mean, he’s a coach, manager. Just because he’s doing this successfully at Tennessee for years doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have goals of being a big league manager and winning a World Series.” How many kids grow up and say, “I want to win a World Series.” versus how many kids grow up and say, “I want to win a college World Series.” You always start with World Series. So, I don’t want to discount that part, Kip. I mean, is he taking a pay cut? Maybe, probably, right? According to the report, but he might have gotten more than three years, so there’s there’s still some security there. And he spent eight seasons already at Tennessee. He’s won there. Like, you kind of accomplished it all. you have to deal with more of the NIL crap now, which a lot of college coaches that have a lot of power get pissed about. So, it makes sense to me. You get to be under Buster Posey, who is a very different front office exec from most of the others, and he played and he has a lot of respect for the college game. He loved his time at FSU. So, to me, it all adds up and makes sense. And here’s the cherry on top for me, Kip. Tony Vitello is going to be known forever as the guy that did this. And if he does this successfully, he will pave the way for others to do this and will be a pioneer. That’s cool. That’s a legacy building moment. Oh, I I don’t question at all why he’s doing it. I I I completely understand his side. I I completely It is such a big jump and like you said, the personal goals and aspirations and you want to be a World Series manager and you want to be a major league manager, the guy’s taking a pay cut to do it. That is absolutely the goal is to get to the big leagues in any aspect of the sport. Uh, so no, I don’t question why Vital is doing it. And there will be the entire rest of the league will be watching how this plays out to see if it can work or not. And then that will open up the floodgates to more college coaches maybe doing it down the road if this works out. Let’s take you through the Arena Club slab pack experience. This is part two because Todd Father last week pulled a card that he didn’t love yet he sold it back for actually more than what the slab pack cost. This time pulls a card that he likes. Yeah. And this is the best part of it. Ronnie Mauricio, the Mets stand out, you know, rookie sensation. He’s been absolutely phenomenal. I like the itch of seeing what you’re going to get. You know, I like prospects. I don’t love them, but seeing this kind of card is actually absolutely beautiful thing. I know a couple people around town that would absolutely love that card. So, there’s going to be a lot of conversations going on here for Arena Club. And what you do is you have it in your digital showroom. If you want to hand it out locally, then cool. You ask Arena Club to send it to you, and they do. Or you can sell it back like you see there. Instant offer for 193 bucks, but he’s keeping it. And you can do what Toddfather does by going to arenaub.com/fall and getting 20% off your first card purchase or your first slab pack purchase. What do you think is going to be the toughest thing for him at the jump? Like Lance Lynn’s on this show sometimes and I heard him the other day on the radio say that the speech in spring training for him actually matters more than most because it’s different and you just want to hear what he has to say and just the way that he’s perceived right from the jump in spring training like hey let’s give this guy a chance. He has had a lot of success. Do you think that you know something in spring training really matters? Like what’s the moment where it’s going to be like okay he’s got these guys? I think he’s going to be good at that. I think it’s going to be more comes down to what AJ was saying and more about running a bullpen, running an organization almost a big league team for the first time rather than a college team. I think the differences of those I think is what it’s going to come down to. Uh I think he’ll get the the room behind him and with a good speech and he’ll have the respect of the guys by before the season starts. But, um, I mean, it’ll be interested to see maybe in that first month, let’s say April comes around and you see him maybe make a couple wrong moves or put in the wrong guys or or start different players that aren’t supposed to be starting. It’s like that’s when you’ll start to question it. But going into it, I think it’ll be he’ll be fine with getting the team behind him. I just I think it starts now. The minute he’s hired, he’s going to start having to reach out to guys. I feel like he’s gonna have to start reaching out to Logan Webb and Rafy Devers and Willie Adamis and getting him getting them on his side. You know, I mentioned Robin Ventura before. One of the things I think where Robin messed up is my I was there his first year. He didn’t call anybody in the offseason because he’s like, “Oh, I didn’t want to see act people like I was playing favorites or anything.” I’m like, “Dude, you should have reached out to me and Cano and some of the veteran guys that had been around for a while to like see what we’re thinking and what we like and this and that.” He’s like, “Well, I want to go into spring training with a clean slate.” Like, no. like go into it and say, “Hey, listen. I’m gonna I’m gonna call Rafy Devers. I’m gonna call Logan Web. I’m gonna call Willie Adams. I’m gonna call Matt Chapman. I’m gonna call Patrick Bailey. I’m gonna call these guys that I know I’m going to be counting on and get and get their feelings and what they what I they need from me as a manager and then go from there.” Do you know the first thing I’m doing if I’m him once I sign after I get acclimated with the team and the organization? Flying to the DR and having lunch with Raf. That’s what I’m saying. Get to know those guys. Hey dude, you’re a big guy. I saw what they did to you in Boston. Not my vibe. I’m a players guy. I know what this means. Even though I didn’t play, I think they did it wrong. And play to what he wants. Right. That’s what I’m saying. Well, how hard is that? Team will fly you there and take them out to lunch. That’ll go a long way with your relationship with your team doing just even a phone call like that. Absolutely. Okay, cool. Uh well, it’ll be exciting. A fun storyline to watch. It makes the Giants interesting. The Giants have become relevant. They were even this year they were 500, but they are more relevant now. They were kind of stuck in the mud in my mind for several years. After that 2021 season, it’s like and I think Buster Posey has made this. Is this going to be more of a Bruce Bochi hire or a Gabe Kappler hire? We’ll find out. Or a little bit in between. But attendance was up big in San Francisco. I give credit to Buster Posie for bringing in stars that people actually want to watch and they can buy some jerseys.

Jason Kipnis, AJ Pierzynski, and Scott Braun react to breaking news as the San Francisco Giants hire Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello — becoming the first manager in MLB history to jump straight from college with no pro experience. The crew breaks down how this move could reshape the modern dugout, what challenges Vitello will face managing veterans like Rafael Devers and Logan Webb, and why his leadership style could either thrive or clash in the big leagues. They also compare his path to other managers like Pat Murphy and Robin Ventura, discuss the front office’s role under Buster Posey, and debate whether this bold hire can make the Giants true contenders again.

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