{"id":578936,"date":"2026-02-18T08:29:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/578936\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T08:29:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T08:29:28","slug":"tony-vitello-clarifies-comments-about-reporting-around-giants-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/578936\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Vitello clarifies comments about reporting around Giants role"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n

First-year San Francisco Giants manager Tony Vitello is still figuring that part out.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Vitello started his dugout press conference by bringing up the reporting<\/a> around his initial interest in the Giants\u2019 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 \u201cchanged the course of history,\u201d presumably alluding to his leaving Tennessee for the Giants.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cthe manager doth protest too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Tony Vitello was asked about yesterday\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n

Said no one from the Giants addressed it with him & was just stating facts. He talked about the \u201cchange the course of history\u201d comment and how that nothing would\u2019ve changed b\/t him and Posey.<\/p>\n

(Apologies for some bad audio) pic.twitter.com\/JwegaaooZk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Lively (@mattblively) February 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNo. I\u2019m busy with this,\u201d said Vitello. \u201cSo I didn\u2019t say anything surprising that I know of. I was just stating the facts. So if somebody tweets out or says something that\u2019s not true about you and it affects your life significantly, it\u2019s not just a deal where your feelings are hurt, but it has a significant impact, in particularly on my family, which I\u2019ve obviously got family, but not in Knoxville. The team was my family. Then [I\u2019m] not going to be happy about it. Just like I would want our players to defend themselves, that\u2019s what I would do. But it\u2019s hard to defend yourself when it\u2019s anonymous or an anonymous tip. But no, not worried about that stuff, worried about our guys getting prepared. It\u2019s kindof, well, not scary, but maybe more exciting that the first game is literally right around the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vitello was then asked to clarify his comment about how the reporting might have changed the course of history.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe how things were left [as far as Tennessee]. I wouldn\u2019t 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\u2019s just that anybody else would react the exact same way. It has no real impact on the opportunity that was presented, and it wouldn\u2019t have changed what Buster [Olney] and I would agreed and joined to do, too. So it just happened to be circumstantial.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike I said, when it affects the people, first off, myself, but the people that I\u2019m 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\u2019d let me pay for entry.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 \u201ctrue poster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traditionally, that quality doesn\u2019t make for a great MLB manager, and one wonders whether Vitello will talk himself into trouble when criticism comes this season. Regardless, it\u2019s defintely going to be interesting to see how his relationship with the Bay Area media evolves, as it\u2019s certainly gotten off on a weird foot.<\/p>\n

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