As if things weren’t going bad enough for the San Francisco Giants to start the 2026 MLB season, a former pitcher called into a local sports talk radio station to blast team president and CEO Larry Baer and the hiring of first-year manager Tony Vitello.

Mike LaCoss spent 14 seasons as an MLB pitcher, the final six of which were with the Giants (1986-1991).

As recounted by SFGate’s Alex Simon, LaCoss called in to The Murph & Markus Show, KNBR’s morning show hosted by Brian Murphy and Markus Boucher, on Thursday. Introduced as “Mike in San Francisco,” he quickly explained who he was, much to the confusion of the hosts. After confirming that he was, in fact, the former Giants pitcher, he warned that he’s “negative” and might upset some listeners with his takes.

He started by sharing his thoughts on the team’s decision to hire former University of Tennessee manager Tony Vitello as their new skipper.

“The hiring of the college guy, don’t you think that’s kind of a slap in the face to all of the minor league managers in professional baseball and all of the bench coaches in Major League Baseball that think about becoming a major league manager? They just bypassed all those guys and threw this college guy in there,” LaCoss said. “And of course, when you saw the look on his face in his first real press conference, you saw a totally different look on this guy’s face, man. Like he just saw his dog got run over in the driveway.”

While LaCoss said he wasn’t rooting for Vitello to fail, he added that the manager’s “word salads are going to get worse and worse” if the Giants keep losing. When Murphy told the ex-player that, “If you think the negative takes might be miffing some of the Giants brass, some of the front office guys don’t want the negative takes.” LaCoss was ready to take it there.

“They have the most hated executive in Major League Baseball still around,” he said. “Until they cut the head of the snake off, the baseball gods are going to continue to punish. That’s all I’m going to say. You’ll figure it out.”

Simon spoke with LaCoss afterward, and the former Giant confirmed he was referring to Baer, adding that he “despises” the longtime Giants executive who has been with the club since 1992.

The Giants opened the season by getting swept in three games by the New York Yankees, so if things don’t turn around, LaCoss will be far from the only person calling into local radio stations to complain.