SF Giants make a splash with Tony Vitello hire

SF Giants make a splash with Tony Vitello hire

We are back here with another episode
of Section 4 1 5, and our guest today is the San Francisco Standards
Baseball Reporter, John Shaa. John, thanks so much for joining us. Busy Week for you. Yeah. How about that, Carrie, we didn’t
know this was happening, say back in July when it was almost a done deal
that Bob Melvin would return in 26. Look what’s happened. Look what’s happened. Indeed, Tony Vitello, the head coach
at the University of Tennessee, is now the manager of the San Francisco
Giants, an almost unprecedented leap into Major League baseball. And let’s kick things off right away,
John, this is our first headline. The Giants were making a landmark
hire here in pulling someone from the college level to the big leagues. What was your first reaction
when you realized that this was a very real possibility for
Buster Posy in this organization? Yeah, I, Buster Posey,
the two key words here. Uh, name another general manager
who would’ve done this and appeased ownership and a fan base in the process. I, I’m not sure there is anybody
who could have pulled this off. Uh, the fan base is desperate. The ownership is desperate. They see every year the
Dodgers in first place. They see every year the Dodgers
go deep into the postseason. They see every year the giants finish 500. Okay? It’s not working. So what do you do? You go outside the box, way outside
the box, way outside the diamond in this case, and you pull a guy outta
Tennessee, who’s 47 years old, who’s never played pro ball, never coached
in pro ball, never managed in pro ball. And now he’s taken over one of the
signature franchises in Major League Baseball history, uh, and the well
decorated president of baseball operations, Buster Posey, who is
a hall of fame catcher, and also a three time World Series champion. Goes on and on and on his record,
uh, he’s bold, he’s daring. Does things, you know, going back to
Adamis and Chapman and endeavors and you know, how he handled Bob Melvin. It, it’s just, okay. I, to me, Gary, it’s fascinating
that he’s even still in the spot. I, I said it when he was hired. I’ll say it now. I’m still fascinated and in awe
that this man took the time away from his family, his retirement. He didn’t have to do this. He didn’t need the publicity,
he didn’t need any credit. He didn’t need his name on the marquee
or uh, billboards or buses, but here he is, uh, pulling off, uh, some wild
stuff and talking about the Dodgers. Maybe this is his way of
saying, you know what? The conventional stuff doesn’t work. I’ve learned that in my
year one at the helm. Let’s try this. Let’s try this. Indeed, Tony Vitello sets be
introduced as the San Francisco Giants manager at a press conference
at Oracle Park next Thursday. You’ll be there. I’ll be there, like you said,
fascinated to see the dynamic between Posey, a superstar player who came
back to run the organization that he starred for, and Tony Vitello,
who’s never worked a day in his life. In Major League baseball. John, I, I wanted to ask you a
little bit about the process here, because at the outset, I think
you and I were kind of aligned. You know what we both felt that Posey
would probably interview some former catchers, maybe some former teammates. We knew that Nick Hunley was a favorite,
uh, and yet it’s still leads this unconventional hire that breaks the mold. H how do you think the Giants
ultimately landed on Vitello? Based on what we knew initially about
Poseys parameters for this process. Well, great question. You, you’re right. It seemed like this is the second choice. And in these recent days, if
Vitello said, you know what? I’m staying at Tennessee. I love it here. It’s a great culture. I’m successful. I’m making big Bitcoin. Then Posey would’ve had to say,
okay, who, who’s our third choice? And you keep going down the list. Uh, he would’ve been
fine with Nick Hunley. I think he would’ve been fine. Um. Maybe with one or two
others that he interviewed. Uh, we did report, it was Brandon
Hyde at one point that he spoke with, uh, early in the process. He spoke with maybe a half a
dozen people, I would guess. Um, but in this case he, you know, we had
that, we had that source, that industry source saying that, you know, this
probably was the guy who told him, I can take down the Dodgers and nobody else
would be that bold to say that this guy. This dude is bold. I mean, you look at his track record and
I, I’ve tried to like read every word outta Knoxville and go to every podcast
he’s been in and I don’t think I’m still prepared to to, to cover this guy. I mean, there’s still so much
more we need to know about him. We need to learn. I mean, how is he going to
manage a big league game? This isn’t like a double header
with seven innings on, on each end. This isn’t metal bats. Uh, this isn’t, uh, Hey,
you guys get home now. You got finals tomorrow. You know, this isn’t, Hey,
I’m in your living room. Yeah, I’d love to recruit your high school
kid and, and bring him to Knoxville. This, this is, these are grown men. These are major leaguers. These are accomplished ball players
who are, who have all kinds of money in the bank security families. How’s that transition? Transition gonna work? I mean. We’re all skeptical, right? ’cause we haven’t seen it. We haven’t seen it played out. So only Buster Posey knows for
sure and maybe he doesn’t even know how this is going to play
out, but it, it remains a surprise. And I was just thinking this morning
when he arrives at the winter meetings, all eyes are gonna be on this guy. I thought the same with Buster
Posey last year, his first time, uh, at the winter meetings when
all the industry gets together. The, the owners, the scouts, the
agents, the, the media, um, all officials in the front office. And when, when Buster Posey and Tony
Vitello walked down a hallway, eh, you’re gonna notice those two guys. It it, because it’s unlike any other
partnership in Major League baseball. The Giants are the attraction right now. Headline number one, the Giants hire
Tony Biello out of the University of Tennessee and make the college
head coach 2024 College World Series champion their manager. Headline number two, John Friday morning. We discussed this right before we
sat down to record this episode. Tony Biello released a very interesting
statement to Knoxville Media on Friday, and he opened it up by saying,
I’ve accepted the job to be Drew Gilbert’s babysitter at the full as
a full-time babysitter for the Giants outfielder at the major league level. Gilbert, of course, played at the
University of Tennessee and was a star. For the volunteer program under Vitello,
but there were also some very candid thoughts that he shared how difficult
this decision was, how he went back and forth in his own mind, determining
whether or not he would actually accept this position after it was
reported on Saturday, that the Giants were closing in on this hire after we
said in the San Francisco standard. Expect the unexpected. What did you think of Vitello’s
statement to Knoxville Media? Yeah, that’s right. And going back to last
Saturday, expect the unexpected. We did heavily play up. Tony Vitello. Uh, I think it all started that morning
with, uh, Tim Ka tweeting and going on social media that, Hey, fans be prepared. Something’s coming down here. Um, you know, he knew, uh, and as we
reported, he, he was either the favorite or right there at the top at the time. And then a couple hours later
it kind of blew up nationally. Um. Then, you know, a couple of days later,
we reported the figures 3.5, 3.5, 3.5 with a vesting option in a, in a fourth year. But going to the statement that
he released it, it’s almost like he doesn’t wanna leave Knoxville. This was not a big press conference. This was like five people. He selected, Hey, I’m gonna issue a
statement tomorrow, and it’s just a bunch of scribbled notes on the back of, uh. You know, the University of
Tennessee paper and that he had in the baseball office probably. And he scribbled it down and then read it
and it was emotional, um, ball for life. It, it’s almost like he
said, I’m never leaving here. This is my home. I’ll be back. But it’s, it, it’s, you know, he
mentioned, you know, the fans, the stadium, by the way, Lindsay Nelson
Stadium, the former broadcaster, former Giants broadcaster,
late seventies, early eighties. I think he replaced
Joe Angel in the booth. When Angel moved on, but Lindsey
Nelson is a Hall of Fame broadcaster. It went to Tennessee, I think he
started a radio program out there. And, uh, he had the name of
the stadium named after him. So, uh, there’s your giant connection. Um, but it, it, it just seemed that, uh,
he, he, he has so much connection there. I could see now based on the
statement that I read today. That it was really hard for him to make a
choice, and it didn’t happen immediately. Uh, I, I imagine a lot of people in the
business in the industry said, Hey man, you gotta take this job, not just for
yourself, but for the next guy in college who’s maybe going to follow your path. I think that’s one of the most interesting
parts of all of this, John, is that. There were only 30 major league
manager jobs, but I’m not so sure that Tony Vitello would’ve
jumped for any job out there. I think that there are maybe five or
six, and you probably put the Giants in that category that he would’ve
been willing to leave Knoxville to go and take, and it took him four
or five days to make this decision. Potentially when the Giants first. Really started showing that he was the
final candidate on Saturday for the job, and he doesn’t officially, uh, get
announced as manager until Wednesday. Let’s say the age or the Marlins or the
Pirates or a team that doesn’t spend a lot is the team to offer the SEC head coach. Maybe he’s still coaching at Tennessee,
but you have to figure the lure of working with Buster Posey, the lure of coming
to an organization that has invested a lot in Tennessee, in Drew Gilbert,
in Blade Tidwell and Gavin Keelen, their first round draft pick this year. That probably had something to do with
the comfort level of making this decision. In my mind, I was told by somebody who’s
pretty close to Buster that he would not have made that choice. Based on what you just said, it,
it’s so much bigger than that. Braves. Yes. A’s no. Right. Braves closer to Tennessee a’s
playing a minor league ballpark. Who knows what they’re doing? Um. So yeah, the, the Giants are, uh,
I mean there, there’s, there, you know, there, there are connections. What is it? Buster’s, uh, sister is married to an
assistant football coach at Tennessee. And, um, whether that’s how the
relationship between him and Vital started, we’ll know Thursday
exactly how that all reach fruition. Um, yeah, it, it’s fascinating. I, I’d love to hear from you, man. Um. Because you, you know, you, you were
there with Gabe Kapler and you were there with Bocci, and you saw that
transition, and now we’re seeing the transition from Melvin to Vitello. Any similarities? I mean. Not to cross sports, but I think that,
and you wrote this for the San Francisco standard, when a manager or a head coach
is fired, typically the executive in charge of the search for their replacement
goes in the opposite direction. And the first time I experienced
this was covering college football. I covered. Todd Graham, who reminded me
a little bit of Tony Botello. He was the head coach at Arizona State. He invigorated the football program with
energy, talking about discipline, talking about fundamentals, and when Graham kind
of flamed out at the end, the athletic director there, Ray Anderson, hired an NFL
head coach in her Edwards, who was just the polar opposite in terms of his energy
level and herms program just deteriorated. It went off the rails. There were all sorts of recruiting
violations and so what did they do? But go back and get. The youngest head coach in college
football, you go from one of the oldest coaches with NFL experience to the
youngest coach in college football. And we’ve seen this play out
with the San Francisco Giants. John, you’ve seen Bruce Bocce, one
of the most established, respected managers in all of baseball. Uh, a future hall of famer. He’ll be in Cooperstown very soon. And you go to Gabe Kapler, uh,
uh, spark plug, someone who was different in every way, shape or
form as the Giants at that time. Larry Bear and Farhan
Zedi talked about this. Were trying to become the
next gen organization. Next gen only took them to 2021. It didn’t take them beyond that. So after two years of failures, you bring
back the bochy type figure in Bob Melvin. And now if Bob Melvin wasn’t the right
guy for the job, which Buster Posey decided three months after picking
up his option, then you go to Tony Vitello, who is much more similar to
Gabe Kapler, then he is to Bruce Bocci. Now Giants folks will tell you
he’s a better relationship builder. He cultivates his relationships
with his players, with his coaches on a much more deep level. But, uh, these things
just swing back and forth. It’s really fascinating when you
look at the big picture here. So let’s talk big picture here. Let’s get to headline number three,
and that is we are now 12 plus months in to Buster Poseys tenure as
the president baseball operations. And if you can sum it up in any way
to me, John, it’s bold moves and it’s a sense of urgency that so many
other executives simply don’t show. My word is evolve. You know, Buster Posey took
this job thinking, you know, I’m more of an old school guy. I played for Boce in spring training. I’m gonna bring in a dozen former players,
which Farhan Idi never wanted to do. He didn’t want that outside influence. He wanted his own guys coaching
techniques, their own way, which maybe conflicted with the way Will Clark or
Barry Bonds or any of these other guys that Buster brought in last spring. But he maintained a relationship, or he
built a relationship with Bob Melvin. Didn’t really know him, but
stood by him, supported him, said all good things about him. And on July 1st, when he handed
him the, um, when he exercised the option for 26, his comment was, if
there’s anyone to blame, blame me. So I’ve never heard any GM say that. It’s always blame the players. Blame the manager, you’re fired. We gotta get new players. That’s, that’s the talking
point of a general manager, and I’ve covered him forever. And for Bus Posey to stand up and
say, blame me that, you know, he, he was evolving and then I think he
realized in the second half, you know what, we really need more of a mix. You know, day one he did say,
analytics is not going away, remember? But still he leaned on Bob Melvin making
the calls, which Bob Melvin wasn’t really. Given the opportunity to
do under Farhan anxiety. Um, so it’s kind of his, his show,
uh, his lineups, his bullpen moves, uh, when to remove a, a, a starter. And I think Buster evolved and, and
maybe Zach, Ian was in his ear, the analytics department was in his ear, and
they all kind of said, you know what? I think we need to collaborate
a little bit more and, um, make decisions as a whole. Um, not as just a one manager. So I think from there we’ve gotten
to the point of, in 26, I think Buster and Zach and the analytics
department will have a lot more say on what goes on down on the field. So in that way, Buster has
evolved, um, and I’ve seen it from day one to day 365 and beyond. And that’s cool. I mean. The first, when, when he
first took this job, he said, Hey, I’m gonna make mistakes. I’m going to learn. I’m gonna listen to everybody. I remember asking him at the GM
meetings, I said, who are your mentors? And he said, everybody, Farhan anxiety. He never said everybody, you
know, he was his own mentor. You know, he, he, he had the hammer. He decided everything. But for Buster to be open and the
story we wrote early in the season about knocking down that wall. Remember in the broadcast. Uh, level of the press box. First thing Zach and Buster did was
knock down a wall between two small booths that were so small that maybe
even, you know, uh, uh, Farhan and maybe one or two others could fit
in, and the other one went vacant. So now you knock it down. You got this huge booth and they
have 12 to 15 people up there every night discussing Buster
more inclusive than Farhan. Um, that game, uh, what’s next? You know, how can we get better? So he really relies on his inner
circle and you know, to his credit. So I think he’s really involved
and it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in year two. And when I asked at the last press
conference, how long do you wanna do this? ’cause it was a three year
commitment, he said, I would like to do it for more than three years. So that’s encouraging for giant fans. Absolutely. So our free headlines as we tape this
episode here of Section 4 1 5, the Giants have hired Tony Vitello, a
landmark hire in Major League baseball. Uh, Tony Vitello has then released a
statement to Knoxville Media talking about how difficult this transition was
for him, how difficult this decision was for him to go to the college
level, to the major league level. And headline number three,
Buster Posey, 12 plus months in. Still moving with bold
actions and urgency. Jon Che, when we come back we’ll
wrap up section 4 1 15 with a deeper dive in a Buster Poseys, nearly
unprecedented move to bring in a college head coach and install him as the
manager of a Major League franchise. Alright. As we continue to dive into the Giants
hire of Tony Vitello, we’re talking with John Chase, San Francisco Standard
baseball reporter, who has covered managerial transitions from the San
Francisco Giants, from the Oakland A’s and down in San Diego with the Padres. John, you’re a veteran of this. You’ve written extensively about
kind of the most interesting and fascinating transitions. I would imagine this would have to
qualify, but this is the only time. Big shakeups have happened in
your career that you’ve covered. You’re, you’re right. I think I learned early on, as you did
with, uh, Boce to Kapler and your example at a SU, that the opposites follow. And that was never more the case
than when I covered Dick Williams in the eighties down in San Diego. He was gruff, he was mean. Nobody liked him. He didn’t care. He didn’t like anybody else. He went months without talking to players. Tim Flannery once said, once
I’m out of this game, I’m gonna run him over with my car. That’s how, that’s how much that love
affair was between manager and players. And we’d go in his room after a tough
game and he would say, everyone in here. You saw, you write it and then he
stormed out and I said, okay, that’s a little different than, uh, modern times. And so when he left, they brought
in a fellow named Steve Boris. And Steve Boris was a manager
in Oakland when Ricky showed up. And so he was kind of, uh, a, a baseball
lifer, a friend of Jack McKee in the gm. So he brought him in. Total opposite, nicest guy in the world. Probably the nicest manager in history. Players took advantage of him. And I remember vividly one day we went
up to go, guy said, you blew a safe. And he said, yeah, skipper says,
uh, you were tired out there. He said, skip said what? So he stormed into the uh, manager’s
office and by then Boris was in the shower, which was right in line with
the office right inside the office. Boris opened the door and said, you
never tell these guys I’m tired. And, and Boris who’s, you know,
got suds and couldn’t barely see, looks out naked, he says, Hey
Goose, can we talk about this later? I’ll talk about it now. Don’t ever tell these guys I’m tired. But anyway, when he was gone,
who did they replace him with? Larry Boa, who was a mini me of Dick
Williams, who was just as gruff. And uh, I remember they opened
the season, his first year at Candlestick Park, played the Giants. Well, big hopes. Big dreams. The giant swept them. And in the visiting, uh, clubhouse, in
the manager’s office, Larry Boa, his first comment was, I’m horse bleep. The coaches are horse bleep. The players are horse bleep. We’re all bleeping. Horse bleep. I’m thinking, oh man, this
is gonna be a long season. I’m still just a kid covering this stuff. But that’s how dramatic these changes can
be, and that’s how dramatic this one is. From Bob Melvin to Tony Vitello. You know, one thing I’ve also
learned through this whole process of covering managerial transitions and
different sports, different teams is there’s no one way to have success. I think Giants fans will tell you that,
well, Bruce Bauche’s way is the best way. And that’s because he won
three titles in San Francisco. But we’ve also seen around
Major League baseball. You know, you look at 2016, the Chicago
Cubs who really changed the sport. Joe Madden was so analytics focused
and what they did really ushered in a modern era that I think still
has its inference all over the way that teams operate these days. Can Tony Botello work? We haven’t seen anyone like him come
into the big leagues, a college coach, uh, someone who bleeds and oozes
passion, energy, fire, enthusiasm. But for a 60 to 70 game season at
Tennessee, can this work in the major leagues in, uh, do you think that
the Giants will give him a champ? The giants players? John, that’s a big question. Um, you mentioned Joe Madden. He mentions Joe Madden in a
podcast I heard with Greg Olson. Uh, he mentioned Joe Madden. He loved that 2016 Cubs
team managed by Joe Madden. He loved the fact that everybody said,
Hey, let’s make history, you know, we’re, we’re going to do something nobody else
has done in more than, uh, a century. And that’s when a World Series at Wrigley
Field and he idolized Joe Madden almost. And he spoke also about that 93
Phillies team, which was made up. A whole bunch of characters from
Dalton, the Dykstra, um, and you know, to crook and all the way down. And what’s the bottom line? What’s the common denominator? He loves personalities,
he loves characters. He loves guys being themselves,
and he’s going to encourage. This Giants team, all these
players be themselves. We might not see 26 Drew Gilberts,
you know, gnawing on Robbie Ray’s sleeve every day and, and jumping over
the rail, uh, uh, from the dugout. But I think, we’ll, we will see
maybe more openness, um, and, uh, more of themselves come out during
the season, which is a good thing. That’s the modern game. Um. But I think, yeah, Joe
Madden is a good example. And I think what he has to do, and
I’m sure he is done it already, is get ahold of Chapman, get ahold of
Adamas, get ahold of devs, and get ahold of Webb and have those guys buy in. Because once those guys buy in,
if they do, everyone else will. And you know, some of them have been
quoted, but it doesn’t really matter what they say now it’s, it’s what they. We’ll do once they’re on the grass,
once they’re on the infield, once they show up at spring training,
will they play for this guy once the season opens in late March against the
Yankees, will they play for this guy? And only then will we know. But all eyes will be on
the Giants this year. Um, and fans want to know. Other executives want to know
because are we gonna take somebody. From LSU, we gonna take somebody
from Missouri who, who you know, who should we get if we want to
follow what Buster Posey is doing. Well, it all begins next Thursday,
October 30th, Oracle Park. Be highly, highly anticipated. Tony Vitello introductory
press conference. We will be out there covering it
for the San Francisco standard. And John, I would imagine as you
interact with Vitello throughout the winter, winter meetings, off season
discussions, we’ll continue to pick your brain right here on section 4 1 5. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you, Kerry.

When Buster Posey began the process of searching for Bob Melvin’s replacement, The Standard’s John Shea wrote that fans should expect the team to pursue a leader who brings different qualities and strengths to the table than Bob Melvin. Well, Posey did more than that. He hired University of Tennessee coach Tony Vitello in a nearly unprecedented move that rocked the baseball industry. In this episode of Section 415, Shea joins host Kerry Crowley to discuss a bold new era of Giants baseball and how Vitello will adjust to life in the majors.

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