San Francisco Giants MAKE HISTORY, hire Tennessee’s Tony Vitello as manager | Is this the right fit?

The San Francisco Giants made history Wednesday when they hired former Tennessee manager Tony Vetello as their next skipper, replacing Bob Melvin, who was fired after missing the playoffs in each of his two seasons at the helm. Vetello will be the first major league manager to not have served as a coach in the majors at any level. Mattello, he’s been the Bulls manager since 2018, winning the College World Series in 2024 for the first time in program history. And here’s Baseball America’s Jacob Rner and why the Giants made this unprecedented hire. You know, the last couple years for the Giants have not gone so smoothly, and I think it got to a point where the organization was looking to make a change that was going to be a little bit unconventional. They were looking to find a way to get back to the top of the NL West, which of course has been dominated over the last decade by the Dodgers. The San Diego Padres’s have made some noise in recent years. And so Buster Posey is the general manager of the team that he once starred for, went out into the market and basically said, “How can we make a change that is different than anything anybody else has done before?” And that’s how they landed on Tony Vitella, one of the most polarizing managers in college baseball, one of the most successful managers in college baseball. He’s been to Omaha three times since taking over at Tennessee prior to the 2018 season. Won the national championship in 2024. And personally, I think it’s a great idea. He brings in somebody who’s going to be galvanizing for their locker room, which is something sources have said they’ve been missing over the last couple years. We also know that Tony Vitello has an analytical edge about him that works particularly well with guys in the 19 into 23 year old range, which is where the Giants are headed. They’re in a rebuild. They have lots of prospects who they’re going to be calling up over the next couple years that will bring the age range down and those are the people that Tony Vitello is most accustomed to working with. I think the Giants got an asset in the draft, somebody who’s going to be able to help them evaluate college talent. We’ve seen them draft over 30 college players in the last two years alone out of their 36 total picks. So, to me, this hire makes a lot of sense, even if it’s a little bit off the beaten path. Tony Vetello becomes the third new manager hired this fall. The Angels announced former big league catcher Kurt Suzuki as their new skipper this week, but worth noting he received just a one-year contract. So the Twins, Braves, and Padres’s are the remaining three vacancies. The San Francisco Giants made history Wednesday when they hired former Tennessee manager Tony Batello as their 40th manager of the organization. Betello will be the first major league manager to not have served as a coach in the majors at any level. And get this, Vatello, he’s been the Bulls manager since 2018, winning the College World Series in 2024 for the first time in program history. He’s going to replace Bob Melvin in San Francisco who was fired after two playoff less seasons with the Giants. All right, we’re back here with Lewis Brenson. And Lewis, you played for the Giants a bit. You know how respected president of baseball operations Buster Posey is in San Francisco. What do you think about the strategy here? Because you go from exercising Bob Melvin’s contract option for 2026 in July. Then you fire him at the end of the season and now you make a really bold decision in bringing in Vatello. Yeah. I mean this guy has the resume at the college level at an elite program to get this job in my opinion. Now the Giants organization is a very very uh an organization with a lot of class, right? Big market. Those those fans are used to winning. haven’t been to the playoffs in a while. They they want, you know, they they want to see a winner. You got the team to build around. And I think this guy bringing with the with the energy, his resume, uh he’s worked with a lot of big leaguers in his college career. Um you know, to name a few. I mean, Max Sherzer, Andrew Benendi, Kyle Gibson, Garage Pro Crochet, like he has worked with big leaguers in the past. So, it’s not like he’s coming in, never worked with a bigger in his life, and you’re just coming in kind of, you know, just beer in the headlights. This guy has worked with some top top talent, but you see the accolades, man. This guy, again, resume, never done it at the big league level, but I think this guy’s qualified in my opinion. So, do you think, um, just to follow up on that, do you think players will respond to him pretty quickly? Because it’s one thing, right, and you know this better than I do, to, you know, work with different major leaguers, but to actually manage them, you know, year round. How do you think the players in the clubhouse are going to respond to him, uh, when he gets to town? Yeah. So, I mean, again, as a big leager, you got a college coach coming in. Again, he has led he he’s he’s taken Tennessee and become, you know, a a top 10 program in the nation. I mean, you win your first national national championship in 2024. He’s brought this this program up from the ground up, you know, and a 722 win percentage while he was there. So, I mean, as a player, you see that and you know that and you have different guys around baseball telling you, “Hey, this guy’s legit. You guys are in good hands.” He does have four Giants coming uh up and cominging Giants that he did have at University of Tennessee. So that could help him and help those guys be a little bit more comfortable. As a young guy coming up, you know the manager. Sometimes the manager can be a little intimidating. You got a Bob Melvin, you got an older guy that’s been around the league a while. You get a little intimidated when you get up there. Now you got your buddy and your college coach in the managerial spot. Now you’re like, “Oh man, I’m comfortable with this guy. I know how this guy calls a game. I know what he expects out of me every single day on the field.” So that can make that a lot of players can kind of go through to that and um you know be comfortable with that. So I think players will respond well. I think he’ll get a lot of respect. Again, you got a lot of guys in that in that locker room make a lot of money. So uh I think he’ll get a lot of respect uh coming out of spring training. We’ll see. But I I I think players will respond very very well to this guy and he’ll definitely earn a lot of respect by the fan base if he’s able to have them in a successful spot for this organization. and Lewis Princon. Always appreciate the inside man. So Tony Vatello becomes the third new manager hired in the MLB this fall. The Angels announced Kurt Suzuki as their new skipper this week, but worth noting he receives just a one-year contract. The Twins, Braves, and the Padres’s are the three remaining vacancies in the majors.

Jacob Rudner and Lewis Brinson join CBS Sports HQ to react to the Giants hiring Tennessee’s Tony Vitello as next manager, as he becomes the first manager hired from college without any pro experience.

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