Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello shocked the baseball world when it was announced that he’d be departing the program to assume managerial duties over the San Francisco Giants. By doing so, Vitello became the first ever manager to jump directly from the College Baseball managerial ranks to the MLB managerial ranks.
Vitello completely revitalized the Tennessee baseball program over the eight years he spent there. From 2018-2025, Tony V led the Volunteers to a 341-131 (125-85) record with six NCAA Tournament appearances, five Super Regional appearances, three College World Series appearances and one National Championship.
Before he could really dive into the MLB offseason, Vitello joined ‘Bussin’ With The Boys‘ to discuss his massive move. During his conversation with Will Compton and Taylor Lewan, Vitello revealed how the job came to be. One day Vitello was recruiting and conducting offseason practice, and the next he’s headed to San Francisco.
Vitello reveals he had been speaking with Giants brass for a while
“It was organic,” Vitello said. “If you really reflect on it, it was kind of drawn out because the conversations have always gone on with college coaches and big league teams, especially in the summer. I remember taking a call on our guy Gavin Kilen, who was a second baseman/shortstop for us. The Giants took him first overall, one of our best players this last year. So, there was a lot of conversations not just about him, but like what’s going on with our program and how we like to do things. Just idea sharing.
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“And then when Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell (both our guys) were involved in a trade, they asked what we thought of those guys. So with those conversations, a little bit of co-op started there. So I don’t know who gets full credit. Zack (Minasian), the General Manager and Buster (Posey) were obviously in charge as well.
“Somewhere along the lines, someone floated the idea of basically trying something new. And San Francisco is as innovative, I mean there’s AI stuff everywhere in buildings and corporations. Just an innovate idea, and I feel blessed to be the guy. I’m also the guinea pig, so we’ll see how it goes.”
Vitello takes over for former manager Bob Melvin, who led the Giants to a 161-163 record over his two seasons in charge. Associate head coach Josh Elander was quickly named as Vitello’s replacement at Tennessee following a groundswell of support.
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