The Tennessee Volunteers are still awaiting the decision of their head baseball coach Tony Vitello. That decision being the most important decision that Tennessee athletics has seen in recent time.
The Tennessee Vols baseball team is led by Vitello, but maybe not for much longer. Vitello is one of the better college coaches and that has led to him being contacted by multiple different teams in the MLB. One of the teams that caught the attention of Vitello is the San Francisco Giants, who recently was in the middle of reports about Vitello leaving to the MLB.
The Vols coach and the Giants were close to finalizing their deal, but that wasn’t the end-all-be-all. The Vols now have a chance to keep their coach, as the coach has yet to announce his decision. He has been in attendance for the last three days, but at the same time, that doesn’t mean he is exactly confirmed to be staying.
He gave the latest news to his team after their scrimmage on Tuesday, as he told the team, per reports, that he is undecided on the decision of either staying or going to the MLB to become the first college coach to jump directly to a manager role.
The reports started circulating on social media, but was first reported by VolQuest’s Eric Cain.
There were some reports from one of the more involved reporters at the MLB level, who even confirmed that he is unsure of what the decision is at this time. That reporter being Andrew Baggarly who had this to say.
Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello greet the 250 youth who are taking part in a baseball camp with Tennessee baseball players at Gibbs Ruritan Park on Sept. 28, 2025, in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event is hosted by the Morgan Wallen Foundation, which donated $140,000 in 2024 to renovate the park. / Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
“I mean I don’t know, I really don’t know. This is not something that Giants have floated out there. They have been locked down, we don’t have any team sources on any of our reporting. It’s all through the industry, so this is not to their advantage to have this news out there if they really want to get this guy. But he’s got some choices to make. The ball’s in his court really, Tony Vitello. Maybe another team will look at this and be like ‘why aren’t we talking to this guy?’ Then another team is calling, so there’s a lot of different permutations. This is the guy that they have offered the job to, now we just have to found out if they can match it up.”