The San Francisco Giants have named Tony Vitello of St. Louis, Missouri as their new manager according to Brian Murphy of mlb.com. This is significant news in Major League Baseball because Vitello does not have Major League Baseball experience.
Vitelli’s experience is at the collegiate level. He has been managing the University of Tennessee Volunteers the last eight seasons, and guided the Volunteers to a College World Series in 2024. In a best of three series, the Volunteers defeated Texas A&M two games to one. It was the first time in the history of the school that the University of Tennessee won the College World Series. Traditionally, they have been known for their outstanding women’s basketball program and the school that NFL superstar and future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning attended.
In 472 games coaching the Volunteers, Vitello had a record of 341 wins and 131 losses. That was an impressive winning percentage of .722.
Vitello replaces Bob Melvin of Palo Alto, California. Melvin was fired on September 29, at the end of the 2025 Major League Baseball regular season. There was one more year left on Melvin’s contract, but the Giants decided to go into a different direction. That direction was unprecedented indeed, as Vitello is the first manager ever to go directly from managing at the NCAA level to MLB.
It should be noted that when the San Diego Padres hired Pat Murphy from Arizona State in 2010, he was their special assistant to baseball operations and manager at the minor league level before being the Padres manager. The Giants, meanwhile, finished the 2025 MLB season at 81 wins and 81 losses, and in third place in the National League West.
