The Giants officially introduced new head coach Tony Vitello during a press conference on Thursday. San Francisco hired the 47-year-old from the University of Tennessee, which has arguably the best college baseball coach in the country. He signed a three-year deal that reportedly pays $3.50 per season and comes with a 2029 vesting option. According to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, the option will vest if the Giants make the playoffs in 2028.
The Giants’ hiring fee will be more than $3.5 in the first season. Maria Guardado of MLB.com, among others, noted that the Giants also paid Vitello a $3MM buyout to be released from his contract in Tennessee. John Shea of the San Francisco Standard observed that they also ate up $4MM in dead money after exercising the 2026 option on Bob Melvin’s contract in July.
Moving from Melvin to Vitello will cost the Giants $10.5MM in the first year. Of course, firing Melvin and hiring Vitello are two different decisions. Pavlovich wrote that president of baseball operations Buster Posey decided to move on from Melvin before the end of the regular season, though they didn’t make the move until the first day of the offseason.
The Giants accepted Melvin’s option on July 1 but were in disarray over the next six weeks. They went 9-15 at the deadline in July, which seemed to more or less seal Melvin’s fate. Pavlovich said the Giants might make the switch even if they clinch the final wild-card spot (though some believe deeper into the postseason could change the calculus). The Giants finished the season at .500, and the Mets’ collapse allowed the Reds to win 83 games and slip into the playoffs.
Posey credited general manager Zack Minasian with first raising the possibility of acquiring Vitello. “There were some rumors (in 2024) that there were teams that wanted and tried to talk to him, and I had that in mind for us when we started working on building the roster,” Minassian told reporters, including Pavlovich. “I thought it would be fun to discuss the name with Buster individually, rather than just sending ‘Here are the 30 names we have.’ I mentioned to him that I thought it would be really interesting to talk to Tony. I think it didn’t take long for him to respond: ‘Yeah, I think he would.’ “
But that doesn’t guarantee Vitello will get the job. The Giants are also understood to have interviewed Rangers special assistant Nick Hundley, Royals third base coach Vance Wilson and future Angels manager Kurt Suzuki. Shea reports they also had a formal interview with former Orioles captain Brandon Hyde. Posey and Hyde were known to have spoken, but it was not clear until today whether it was a formal management interview or a discussion about other potential roles. Hendry was widely considered an early favorite but did not consider himself due to family reasons.
Vitello told reporters he has had preliminary conversations as he assembles his first MLB coaching staff. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic laid out a few possibilities. He noted that Vitello was a college teammate of Twins bench coach Jace Tingler, who coached the Padres in 2020-21.
Tingler had been Rocco Baldelli’s top assistant in Minnesota for the past four seasons, but the Twins fired Baldelli and named Derek Shelton as head coach. Bagali, meanwhile, revealed the Giants may consider bringing back former outfield/first base coach Antoan Richardson. Richardson stayed in the position for four seasons before leaving the Mets in 2024 to serve as first base coach. Reports emerged this week that he would not be returning to Queens because the two sides could not agree on a new contract.
