Browsing: Tennessees

Oct 18, 2025, 06:43 PM ET

University of Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello has emerged as a front-runner for the San Francisco Giants’ managerial job, and a resolution on a potential deal is expected in the next 24 to 72 hours, sources told ESPN on Saturday, confirming multiple reports.

Should the sides agree on a contract, Vitello would become the first manager in major league history to jump directly from a college program to the big leagues without experience in a professional organization.

Vitello, 47, led Tennessee to a College World Series title in 2024 and is regarded as one of the best coaches in college baseball. He would replace Bob Melvin, who was fired Sept. 29 after an 81-81 season, the Giants’ fourth consecutive season without a playoff berth.

San Francisco president of baseball operations Buster Posey has considered several managerial candidates, among them former Giants catcher Nick Hundley and a pair of other former big league catchers, Kurt Suzuki and Vance Wilson. The Giants have instead trained their interest on Vitello, who has distinguished himself as one of the preeminent recruiters and talent developers in the country during a two-decade career as an assistant and head coach in college.

The buyout on his deal at Tennessee is $3 million, the same as his annual salary, sources said.

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The move from college to professional baseball is rare, though not unprecedented. Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy spent 25 years coaching in college before joining the San Diego Padres, with whom he managed in the minor leagues. Murphy then spent eight years as the Brewers’ bench coach before taking over as manager in 2024, when he was named National League Manager of the Year.

Vitello’s transition to the major leagues would come at a far more rapid pace. He would inherit a Giants team competing in a loaded National League West, with the division-winning Los Angeles Dodgers clinching a World Series berth Friday night. San Francisco returns a core of first baseman Rafael Devers, shortstop Willy Adames and third baseman Matt Chapman, and is expected to be active in free agency this winter, sources said.

After more than 10 years as an assistant coach at Missouri, TCU and Arkansas, Vitello took over a moribund Tennessee program before the 2018 season and posted a 341-131 record, advancing to the College World Series in 2021, 2023 and 2024. With a pair of eventual first-round picks and four second-rounders, Tennessee beat Texas A&M to win the school’s first baseball national championship in 2024.

Vitello, whose boisterous personality endeared him at Tennessee and chafed other SEC schools, would enter a different realm in MLB. Whereas college jobs are often defined by the success of recruiting classes, major league teams are constructed by baseball operations departments, with the manager relied upon for clubhouse cohesion, in-game decision-making, bullpen usage and daily media interactions.

The reluctance of MLB teams to dip into the college ranks for managers is long established and has run counter to the hiring practices of other professional sports leagues. NFL teams have regularly plucked head coaches from the college ranks, and in the NBA, there is no stigma associated with college coaches. The closest facsimile to Vitello’s hiring was in 2019, when pitching coach Wes Johnson left the University of Arkansas to take the same role with the Minnesota Twins. Johnson left the Twins in 2022 to accept the pitching coach job at LSU before joining Georgia as its head coach a year later.

Vitello’s philosophies on the game and personality intrigued Posey and aligned with what the future Hall of Famer hopes to build in San Francisco, sources said. In an interview with ESPN in June, Vitello said his reputation as a rabble-rouser did not bother him and that he had no plans to change his approach to coaching, which called for boundary-pushing.

“I think you don’t know where the line is until you cross it. And then you make an adjustment,” Vitello said. “I don’t want our guys, if they give them a coloring book, I don’t want them just coloring inside the lines. You know, come up with something different.”

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The San Francisco Giants “closing in” on hiring Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello as their next manager, according to The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, Brittany Ghiroli and Ken Rosenthal.

If a deal is completed, Vitello would replace Bob Melvin in the manager’s chair.

It’s unclear what the terms of a deal would be, though Baggarly, Ghiroli and Rosenthal noted Vitello is currently the second-highest-paid coach in Division I, as he has an annual salary that exceeds $3 million.

Vitello is getting his first crack as a professional coach at any level after spending the last 23 seasons working in the college ranks. He had stints as an assistant at Missouri (2003 to ’10), TCU (2011 to ’13) and Arkansas (2014 to ’17) prior to being hired as Tennessee’s head coach in June 2017.

In eight seasons with the Volunteers, Vitello led the program to a 341-131 record with two SEC regular-season and tournament titles. He also led them to the first national championship during the 2024 season.

After the Giants finished a disappointing 81-81 in 2025, president of baseball operations Buster Posey announced on Sept. 29 the firing of Bob Melvin.

Melvin went 161-163 in two seasons with San Francisco. The Giants are looking to find a manager who can get them back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

Posey, entering his second season running baseball operations in San Francisco, will hope that Vitello can be the answer they have sought out.

The Giants have been one of the most aggressive teams in terms of pursuing free agents in recent years, but they haven’t had a lot of hits. Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Carlos Correa were among the notable players they attempted to bring in.

Correa had an agreement in place with the Giants that fell apart before it became official due to concerns over his physical.

Rather than try to wait out free agency again, Posey was able to strike during the 2025 regular season with the deal that seemingly came out of nowhere to acquire Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox.

Devers gave the Giants exactly what they wanted with a .236/.347/.460 slash line and a 130 OPS+ in 90 games after the trade. Willy Adames, who was their big free-agent signing last offseason, overcame a slow start to become the first Giants playerto hit 30 homers since Barry Bonds in 2004.

There’s a good nucleus of talent in place for the Giants to be a playoff contender in 2026. They still have Matt Chapman, Jung Hoo Lee and Logan Webb to build around.

If the Giants can make a couple of decent roster additions this offseason, along with the potential hiring of Vitello as manager, they have a good chance to end their four-year playoff drought next season.

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