SF Giants close to hiring Tennessee head coach who started career in Salinas
By Ricardo Tovar
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SAN FRANCISCO (KSBW) — The San Francisco Giants are reportedly close to hiring their next manager, who began his coaching career on the Central Coast.
Baseball insider Ken Rosenthal reports that the Giants are “closing in” on hiring Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello as the club’s next skipper.
Vitello has been Tennessee’s head coach since 2018, winning over 72% of his games. The Volunteers most recently won the College World Series in 2024, and Vitello was named ABCA Coach of the Year.
After finishing his playing career and completing a management degree at Missouri, Vitello got his first coaching job in Salinas.
In 2002, he served as an associate coach for the Salinas Packers of the California Collegiate League. The team went 50–14 and earned its first trip to the NBC World Series.
He left the following year for an assistant coaching job at Missouri before moving on to TCU and later Arkansas in the same role. He then landed a head-coaching job in 2018.
The Giants just completed an average season, going 81–81. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2021, when they won a franchise-best 107 games.
The Buster Posey–led Giants are hoping the 47-year-old skipper can inject energy into a largely newly assembled team.
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