San Francisco Giants pitchers and catchers will report to spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Tuesday, and hey, what do you know? The team plans to have an entire coaching staff there to welcome them.

It was either the worst-kept secret or the most delayed news release of the offseason, but on Friday, the Giants finally announced their 13-person staff under new manager Tony Vitello, and there were no surprises among the group. The holdup, according to those familiar with the process, was that Vitello continued to pursue one more potential hire that didn’t work out.

Vitello assembled a blend of pro experience and personal connections among his coaches to help him make the unprecedented transition to a major-league dugout from the head coaching position at the University of Tennessee.

Bench coach: Jayce Tingler
Hitting coach: Hunter Mense
Assistant hitting coach: Oscar Bernard
Pitching coach: Justin Meccage
Assistant pitching coach: Christian Wonders
Director of major-league pitching: Frank Anderson
Bullpen coach: Jesse Chavez
First-base coach: Shane Robinson
Third-base coach: Hector Borg
Fielding coordinator and catching coach: Alex Burg
Major-league infield coach: Ron Washington
Quality control coach: Taira Uematsu
Bullpen catcher: Eliezer Zambrano

Frank Anderson, who was Vitello’s pitching coach at the University of Tennessee, will oversee mound operations as the Giants’ director of major-league pitching. Bench coach Jayce Tingler, the former San Diego Padres manager and Minnesota Twins bench coach who was Vitello’s teammate at the University of Missouri, will bring a personal relationship along with major-league experience.

The Giants will have two coaches who speak Spanish as their first language, retaining Oscar Bernard to continue as an assistant under new hitting coach Hunter Mense and promoting longtime minor-league instructor Hector Borg to replace Matt Williams as third-base coach.

There’s a blend of experience and tech-savvy youth ranging from 73-year-old Ron Washington, who will serve as major-league infield coach, to 33-year-old Christian Wonders, who was hired away from the Tampa Bay Rays to serve as an assistant under new pitching coach Justin Meccage. Wonders previously worked for the Padres as a pitching science coordinator.

Bullpen coach Jesse Chavez figures to bring an important player perspective to a staff that is otherwise light on big-league service time, having retired a few months ago following an 18-year career in which he pitched for nine different clubs.

Jesse Chavez made four appearances in 2025 for the Atlanta Braves at age 41. (Alex Slitz / Getty Images)

Although Vitello had full discretion to assemble his staff, he worked in collaboration with general manager Zack Minasian and president of baseball operations Buster Posey to ensure the group had the range of skills and experience to cover all the anticipated blind spots. In addition to Anderson, whose 42-year college coaching career included the head coach position at Oklahoma State from 2004-12, Vitello poached strength and conditioning coach Quentin Eberhardt from his Volunteers staff.

Nearly the entire group assembled for the first time at the Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla., in December, cramming themselves into a conference room. Vitello led the introductions.

“I don’t know what would fire up the fans or what will win you games or what will make the players happy, but, selfishly, I was looking at who are the guys that I want to work with or get out of the vehicle every day and walk into the park (with) and be excited about just hanging out with,” Vitello said during his session with reporters at the winter meetings. “In baseball, there’s a lot of work, but there’s a lot of hangout time, too. Certainly, it’s a group of guys I’m excited to do that with.”

Vitello is likely to lean the most on Tingler, who spent the past four seasons as the Twins’ bench coach and probably didn’t get a fair trial in San Diego, where his debut season took place in a 60-game pandemic bubble. Tingler managed the Padres to a 116-106 record in 2020-21 before he was relieved of duties. Tingler, a former minor-league outfielder, also served as a field coordinator and assistant GM with the Texas Rangers. He’ll be invaluable as the point person helping Vitello set up the daily spring training schedule.

Vitello laughed as he recalled his first day on campus as a scrappy walk-on on at Missouri — a chance he probably received because his father, Greg, was a legendary high school baseball coach in the St. Louis area — and the first person he encountered was Tingler swinging in the cages.

“Jayce now is physical, but at the time, he’s small, and I thought, who is this guy?” Vitello said. “It kind of immediately boosted my confidence. ‘Maybe I can make this team.’ It turns out he’s our best player and our best competitor and became one of my best friends.”

Vitello and Tingler would hit in the cages on Thursday nights as a pretense to eavesdrop on Mizzou’s opponents when they held Thursday night practices. They were eager to pick up any intelligence they could get. They were also interested to learn how legendary coaches like Texas’ Augie Garrido ran their programs.

The pair were so non-intimidating that one visiting coach assumed they were there to drag the infield.

“He tipped me a hundred bucks,” Vitello said. “So being friends with Jayce has paid off.”

A couple of years later, Tingler was still playing at Mizzou and Vitello joined the coaching staff as a volunteer.

“We about killed each other about 17 times that year,” said Vitello, who said Tingler might be the only player he’s ever coached who is more intense than current Giants outfielder Drew Gilbert. “I’ve always been trying to get him into college baseball, and he’s always brought up pro baseball. Either way, we had a feeling we’d always work together one day.”