{"id":397770,"date":"2025-10-24T13:50:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/397770\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T13:50:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:50:15","slug":"sf-giants-drew-gilbert-praises-new-manager-tony-vitello-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/397770\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Giants’ Drew Gilbert praises new manager Tony Vitello"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drew Gilbert<\/a> was on a flight to a friend\u2019s wedding in Minnesota on Wednesday when the news broke that Tony Vitello<\/a>, his head coach at the University of Tennessee, would become the Giants\u2019 new manager<\/a>. It wasn\u2019t until his flight landed that the Giants rookie outfielder, briefly disconnected from the world, learned that his former coach would become his current manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to describe. I feel like I was kind of shaking at the moment,\u201d Gilbert said in a phone interview. \u201cBut then, you just kind of want to get to work. That\u2019s what I learned playing under him at Tennessee \u2014 he just makes you want to work all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitello, who will be formally introduced in a news conference at Oracle Park on Thursday, will be making an unprecedented leap from Knoxville to San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The 47-year-old has never played professionally, immediately transitioning to coaching after playing one year at Division II Spring Hill College and three years at Missouri. He has never coached professionally either, spending time as an assistant at Missouri (2003-10), TCU (2011-13) and Arkansas (2014-17) before transforming the Vols from SEC bottom dweller to national powerhouse.<\/p>\n

President of baseball operations Buster Posey has made one of the boldest managerial hires in recent memory, banking on Vitello breathing life into a franchise that has made the playoffs once in the last nine seasons. And of all the players and personnel in the organization, few know better of Vitello\u2019s ability to transform a team than Gilbert.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s obviously a unique ordeal coming from college to the big leagues, but this is my favorite person I\u2019ve ever played for,\u201d Gilbert said of Vitello, who will reportedly make $3.5 million over three years with an option for a fourth year. \u201cIt\u2019s not even close. There\u2019s nobody else I\u2019d want to play alongside of, and obviously, I have to earn that opportunity, no doubt. But I\u2019m looking forward to being around him and competing with him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gilbert is one of four former Vols currently in the Giants organization, three of whom joined the organization in July. The Giants drafted infielder Gavin Kilen<\/a> with the 13th overall pick of the 2025 MLB draft, then acquired Gilbert and right-hander Blade Tidwell as part of the Tyler Rogers trade<\/a> later that month. There\u2019s also shortstop Maui Ahuna, a fourth-rounder in the 2023 draft.<\/p>\n

To Vitello, Gilbert was an invaluable part of Tennessee\u2019s transformation. Gilbert isn\u2019t necessarily the best player that Vitello coached at Tennessee \u2014 left-hander Garrett Crochet likely holds this distinction, and Gilbert is one of 10 Vols picked in the first round under his watch \u2014 but Vitello credits Gilbert with imbuing the program with an unparalleled intensity and swagger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of good players to come through here, so it\u2019d be disrespectful to say we wouldn\u2019t be as good, but I think the flavor would be different,\u201d Vitello told this news organization in September. \u201cThe brand name would be different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s collective intensity, passion and swagger are all traits that are a reflection of Vitello. Whether it was crowdsurfing with fans after winning the 2024 College World Series<\/a>\u00a0or chest-bumping an umpire during an argument<\/a>, Vitello has seldom backed away from expressing the spectrum of human emotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery sport is different, but you think of some of the great coaches: (Nick) Saban, (Bill) Belichick, Pat Riley, for example. What do they all have in common? It\u2019s a high level of intensity and a high standard they hold their players to every single day,\u201d Gilbert said.<\/p>\n

Vitello\u2019s energy was unquestionably his calling card at Tennessee, but it\u2019s also one of his bigger question marks as he makes the leap from collegiate head coach to major-league manager. Will Vitello be able to maintain that enthusiasm as he goes from about 60 games in a collegiate season to 162 games in a major-league season? Gilbert certainly believes so.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to set the standard, he\u2019s going to set the tone every single day. I know that for a fact,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cI\u2019m not worried about that. We could play 280 games for all I give a [expletive]. Will it be a little bit of a transition? Of course. Are there going to be some things that he will probably need to adjust on? Maybe, but not necessarily, right? They\u2019re hiring him because they like who he is now. I certainly don\u2019t want him to change a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the question of his target audience for that intensity.<\/p>\n

In college, Vitello was recruiting and coaching young men who were still coming into their own as both baseball players and human beings. In the pros, Vitello will be managing millionaire grown professionals who are long past their amateur days.<\/p>\n

Gilbert brought some collegiate energy to San Francisco\u2019s dugout in August and September, but how does that translate when it drives from the manager? While Vitello can, at times, be bold and brash, Gilbert pointed to Vitello\u2019s ability to connect with any and everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s kind of a chameleon,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cThere\u2019s not really anybody he can\u2019t find a way to talk to or communicate with. He\u2019s intense, he\u2019s super competitive, but a big reason why you see all the college guys who played for him love him is he\u2019s one of the coolest dudes you\u2019ll ever be around. That I see being the least of his problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitello\u2019s personality starkly contrasts that of Posey, who has remained perpetually calm, cool and collected since his playing days. To Gilbert, Posey and Vitello have \u201cmore in common than people think,\u201d describing both as \u201chighly, highly, highly competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBuster wants to win, and he wants to win now. He wants to win every single day he\u2019s at the ballpark. That\u2019s where they\u2019re very similar,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cAre their demeanors different? Sure, but that\u2019s just how humans are. Everybody has a little bit of a different demeanor than the person next to you, but at the root of it is a competitive drive that has clearly gotten both of them to the spot they\u2019re in now.\u201d<\/p>\n

To build a winner in San Francisco, Vitello will leave behind what he created in Knoxville.<\/p>\n

Tennessee was an afterthought in the SEC before Vitello transformed the program into one of the nation\u2019s best. Over eight seasons, Vitello led the Vols to a 341-131 record, winning a national title in 2024 and making the Super Regionals on three occasions.<\/p>\n

During the Vols\u2019 open scrimmage at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Tuesday, Tennessee fans implored Vitello to stay with chants of, \u201cWe want Tony!\u201d Now, Vitello will take on the challenge of creating that same love and adoration in the Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have been able to be around that guy, you know that it is not an accident what he built in Tennessee,\u201d Gilbert said. \u201cHe had kind of built that place from dirt. He takes pride in that, so I know it wasn\u2019t an easy decision to leave Tennessee. It\u2019s a pretty special spot to play at now, and he\u2019s the biggest reason for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drew Gilbert was on a flight to a friend\u2019s wedding in Minnesota on Wednesday when the news broke…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,5776,2178,648,5774,5775,853,4,1694,2341,5777,378,5778,66,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-397770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-college-baseball","12":"tag-giants-hq","13":"tag-inside-sports","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-ncaa","17":"tag-ncaa-baseball","18":"tag-peninsula","19":"tag-san-francisco","20":"tag-san-francisco-county","21":"tag-san-francisco-giants","22":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115429469729229024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}