The first stage of the Tony Vitello era as San Francisco Giants manager is nearly complete, as the franchise has nearly hired his staff and president of baseball operations Buster Posey has completed setting the 40-man roster for free agency.
Now, Vitello will put his recruiting skills to use as San Francisco hopes to bolster its roster by signing for some starting pitching and perhaps one more veteran bat to add to a constellation of hitters that includes Rafael Devers, Willy Adames and Matt Chapman.
But his hiring as manager will be hotly debated for some time. Recently, former Giants fan favorite and broadcaster Hunter Pence took time to give his thoughts about the hire in an appearance on MLB Network.
Hunter Pence on Tony Vitello
Pence said he has a little experience with Vitello. He’s also called college baseball games and had interviewed him early in his coaching career at Tennessee. Pence said the hiring was “interesting and definitely exciting” and made it clear that the 47-year-old former Vols coach had the intensity required for the job.
“This guy is just obsessed with baseball with his whole soul, and any manager is going give every fiber of your being to manage at the big league level,” Pence said. “But he’s creative, he’s aggressive and, you know, the Vols were the villains of the SEC, and SEC baseball right now is at such a high level and has such great baseball minds and so much is on the line.”
Tennessee was Vitello’s first head-coaching job in the college ranks and he went 341-131 in eight seasons with the Volunteers. He led the Vols to their first MCWS title, made six NCAA regional appearances, five NCAA super regionals and made three trips to the MCWS. Before that, he was an assistant coach at three different college programs, including his alma mater, Missouri.
It’s that aggressive mindset that Pence believes will serve Vitello well in the evolving world of being an MLB manager.
“Vitello has an aggressive mindset, he changes the room, he has confidence, he’s a forward thinker and he understandings the mechanics of the game,” Pence said. “So it’s going to be real exciting to see how they balance it all out.”
Pence played the majority of his 14-year career with the Giants, logging time with the franchise from 2012-2018 and again in 2020. In that time, he was named an All-Star in 2014 and won two World Series rings in 2012 and 2014. He slashed .265/.322/.429 with 95 home runs and 412 RBI.
He also played with the Houston Astros, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Texas Rangers and finished with a career slash of .279/.334/.461 with 244 home runs and 942 RBI. He was a four-time All-Star in his career.