An important quality of a Major League Baseball manager is the ability to constantly move forward. Even the best managers lose a lot of games each season, and you’re going to have a lot of bad calls, but you have to put them behind you quickly so you can attack the next strategic opportunity.

First-year San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello is still figuring that part out.

On Monday, Vitello started his dugout press conference by bringing up the reporting around his initial interest in the Giants’ job and launched into a diatribe about its inaccuracies and the ripple effects, simultaneously saying it caused a lot of distractions and yet caused no distractions for his Tennessee Volunteers baseball team. He also noted that the leak and report could have “changed the course of history,” presumably alluding to his leaving Tennessee for the Giants.

It was obvious that the first-year manager was still miffed about the reporting, even though he did indeed take the job he was said to be interested in. It was all a bit “the manager doth protest too much.”

On Tuesday, Vitello met with the media again and was asked whether he had noticed that some people were surprised by his comments and the need to make them.

Tony Vitello was asked about yesterday’s comments.

Said no one from the Giants addressed it with him & was just stating facts. He talked about the “change the course of history” comment and how that nothing would’ve changed b/t him and Posey.

(Apologies for some bad audio) pic.twitter.com/JwegaaooZk

— Matt Lively (@mattblively) February 17, 2026

“No. I’m busy with this,” said Vitello. “So I didn’t say anything surprising that I know of. I was just stating the facts. So if somebody tweets out or says something that’s not true about you and it affects your life significantly, it’s not just a deal where your feelings are hurt, but it has a significant impact, in particularly on my family, which I’ve obviously got family, but not in Knoxville. The team was my family. Then [I’m] not going to be happy about it. Just like I would want our players to defend themselves, that’s what I would do. But it’s hard to defend yourself when it’s anonymous or an anonymous tip. But no, not worried about that stuff, worried about our guys getting prepared. It’s kindof, well, not scary, but maybe more exciting that the first game is literally right around the corner.”

Vitello was then asked to clarify his comment about how the reporting might have changed the course of history.

“Maybe how things were left [as far as Tennessee]. I wouldn’t take what I say too seriously. I mean, we were talking about a Lil Wayne. Again, I think the facts of the case were what I just said; it’s just that anybody else would react the exact same way. It has no real impact on the opportunity that was presented, and it wouldn’t have changed what Buster [Olney] and I would agreed and joined to do, too. So it just happened to be circumstantial.

“Like I said, when it affects the people, first off, myself, but the people that I’m around every day, too, then it was less than ideal circumstances. But pretty ideal circumstances, as I said here, getting to watch [Rafael] Devers and Robbie Ray hook it up for one at bat if I was just outside the park, and they’d let me pay for entry.”

Vitello likes to talk; that much is clear. And he seems to wear his heart on his sleeve, as it were. If he were on social media, he would probably be considered a “true poster.”

Traditionally, that quality doesn’t make for a great MLB manager, and one wonders whether Vitello will talk himself into trouble when criticism comes this season. Regardless, it’s defintely going to be interesting to see how his relationship with the Bay Area media evolves, as it’s certainly gotten off on a weird foot.