New Giants manager Tony Vitello’s coaching career began in California

Vitello was named the 40th manager in San Francisco Giants history Wednesday, Oct. 22, sending shockwaves through major league and collegiate baseball alike. The 47-year-old native of St. Louis leaves a legacy at University of Tennessee, where he coached for eight seasons, including a national championship in 2024.

“Everywhere Tony has been success has followed him,” Runyan said.

The Giants are hoping the trend continues in San Francisco, and president of baseball operations Buster Posey is taking a heck of a chance on an untested new field manager of historic proportions.

Vitello has neither coached nor played affiliated professional baseball, something no big league manager in history can claim. The closest baseball has ever seen to this came in a fictional realm, the 1999 film “For Love of the Game,” when then University of Texas head coach Augie Garrido was cast to portray the New York Yankees manager, coaching opposite Detroit Tigers manager Frank Perry (JK Simmons) and star veteran pitcher Billy Chapel (Kevin Costner).

Starting with both being national champion college coaches, the new Giants manager shares many traits with Garrido, according to those who have played with and coached him.

“Highly intelligent, loves baseball,” said Tim Jamieson, who was the head coach at Missouri when Vitello played there from 2000-02. “Loves the camaraderie that comes through team sport, he loves to compete ... he’s great at creating relationships. He has an ability to connect very quickly with people.”

It was Jamieson who gave Vitello his first shot at coaching college baseball. After Vitello ended a modest playing career at Missouri as a second baseman who totaled 70 career at-bats with a .229 average, he joined the staff as a volunteer coach. The following year, Missouri pitching coach Sean McCann departed after one year with the Tigers to take the same position at Kansas State. Similarly to Posey and the Giants last week, Jamieson took an out-of-the-box chance on Vitello, a former infielder, and promoted him to pitching coach.

“Tony, at that time, was the right person, and I knew he would develop and learn quickly ... and I knew I could help him along the way,” Jamieson said. “But he didn’t need a lot of help.”

Those in the know recognized Vitello was destined to coach baseball all along. His father Greg is a Missouri Sports Hall of Fame high school baseball and soccer coach, who ran both programs at De Smet Jesuit in Creve Coeur, Missouri, about 15 miles west of St. Louis, where Vitello played for the Missouri state championship boys’ soccer team in 1997.

After a year playing NCAA Division II baseball at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama — birthplace of Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron and Willie McCovey, among other baseball greats — Vitello transferred to Missouri, where he was teammates with a group of prominent future coaches in Jayce Tingler, current bench coach of the Minnesota Twins and former manager of the San Diego Padres, along with Matt Hobbs, current pitching coach at University of Arkansas.

“I think it’s just because of, particularly of Jayce and Tony, both of those guys were destined to be coaches at some point, both of their fathers were coaches ... it’s just coincidence,” Jamieson said. “It’s not anything Missouri did in particular. We were just fortunate to have those guys at the same time.”

Vitello was also college teammates with pitcher Garrett Broshius, a former teammate of Posey’s in the San Francisco farm system with the 2009 San Jose Giants. Broshius went on to pursue a law degree, and represented a lawsuit against Major League Baseball for violating wage and overtime laws that brought a $185 million settlement in 2022, and effectively led to the restructuring of minor league baseball over the past seven years.

Vitello has been a college coach nonstop since stepping into the dugout alongside Jamieson in 2003. He spent eight years as a full-time assistant at his alma mater, with the Tigers advancing to the NCAA regional playoffs seven straight years from 2003-09, including a trip to a Super Regional in 2006. He went on to coach at Texas Christian University and University of Arkansas before taking over the program at Tennessee in 2018.

Continuing his winning ways with the Volunteers in posting a 341-131 career record, Vitello took the program from middle-of-the-pack seasons for the better part of 10 years, to qualifying for the NCAA playoffs for six straight postseasons from 2019-25, including five straight Super Regional berths, three trips to the College World Series, and taking home a national championship from Omaha in 2024.

“He’s taken a middle-of-the-pack program in the toughest conference in the country and made it one of the best, if not one of the best in the country,” Jamieson said. “To do it consistently, it’s not an accident. You have the right people around him ... and that’s a reflection on him.”

After stepping down as Missouri’s head coach following the 2016 season, Jamieson returned to the Tigers as a pitching coach in 2024, and coached against Vitello for two years in the Southeastern Conference.

“If you watch him in the dugout, he appears calm — he’s not,” Jamieson said. “He’s fiery, he’s competitive. At times... he’ll demonstrate his emotions, but more times than not it’s to defend his team, to defend his players. So, it’s never about Tony. It’s about the situation.”

San Francisco Giants fans got a taste of the fiery and competitive side of Tennessee Vols baseball at the end of last season after outfielder Drew Gilbert was acquired at the July trade deadline in a four-player deal that sent relief pitcher Tyler Rogers to the New York Mets. Gilbert played for Vitello for three seasons at Tennessee, including the team’s trip to the CWS in 2021.

“Tony has always been just a glue guy and really good with players,” Runyan said. “I think his coaching style, at times, has drawn criticism because his players, they celebrate and they play with a lot of emotion and stuff like that. And, sometimes, to the old-school baseball crowd, it rubs people the wrong way. But absolutely his players love playing for him.”

It was a different Giants team Vitello and Runyan saw that June 25, 2001, Monday night in San Francisco, with the China Basin ballpark in just its second year. The park, now Oracle Park, has since gone through three name changes, while the team has seen six field managers — Dusty Baker, Felipe Alou, Bruce Bochy, Gabe Kapler, Kai Correa and Bob Melvin — precede Vitello.

The two friends saw an old-school classic that night in a 5-2 Giants victory, with starting pitcher Matt Gardner picking up the win, Rob Nen saving it, Barry Bonds drawing two walks, and cleanup hitter Jeff Kent going 4 for 4 with a double, a home run and three RBIs.

When the Giants open the new season against the New York Yankees, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, however, expect Vitello to bring plenty of the new school when he mans the dugout at Oracle Park for the first time.

“Tony’s approach, from the outside looking in, it’s the perfect blend between old school and new school,” Runyan said.

Runyan witnessed that approach firsthand, as a player with Vitello taking on his first coaching position as associate head coach under manager Dave Holt in 2002. The Packers that summer went on to capture the California Coastal League championship, defeating the five-time champion Santa Barbara Forresters.