The Giants officially introduced new manager Tony Vitello at a press conference on Thursday. San Francisco hired the 47-year-old away from the University of Tennessee, where’d been arguably the best college baseball coach in the country. He signed a three-year contract that reportedly pays $3.5MM per season and comes with a vesting option for 2029. According to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area, the option would vest if the Giants make the playoffs in 2028.
The hire will cost the Giants quite a bit more than $3.5MM in the first season. Maria Guardado of MLB.com was among those to note that the Giants also covered Vitello’s $3MM buyout to get out of his contract at Tennessee. John Shea of The San Francisco Standard observes that they’re also eating $4MM in dead money after exercising their 2026 option on Bob Melvin’s contract in July.
Moving on from Melvin to Vitello will wind up costing the Giants $10.5MM in year one. Of course, firing Melvin and hiring Vitello were two separate decisions. Pavlovic writes that president of baseball operations Buster Posey had decided to move on from Melvin well before the end of the regular season, even though they didn’t make the move until the first day of the offseason.
The Giants picked up Melvin’s option on July 1 but went into a tailspin over the next six weeks. They sold at the deadline after a 9-15 showing in July, and it seems that more or less sealed Melvin’s fate. Pavlovic suggests that the Giants might have made a change even if they’d manage to snag the final Wild Card spot (though one imagines a deep playoff run would have changed the calculus). The Giants finished the season at .500, and the Mets’ collapse allowed an 83-win Reds team to sneak into the postseason.
Posey credited general manager Zack Minasian with first suggesting the possibility of making a run at Vitello. “There were some rumors (in 2024) that teams were wanting and trying to talk to him, and I thought about it for us just as we started to get to work on building the list,” Minasian told reporters, including Pavlovic. “It was a name that I thought would be interesting to talk to Buster about individually, as opposed to just sending over ’here are the 30 names we have.’ I mentioned to him that I think Tony would be really interesting to talk to. I don’t think it took him long to respond with, ’Yeah, I think he would be.'”
That didn’t ensure Vitello would get the job. The Giants are known to have also interviewed Rangers special assistant Nick Hundley, Royals third base coach Vance Wilson, and future Angels managerial hire Kurt Suzuki. Shea reports that they also conducted a formal interview with former Orioles skipper Brandon Hyde. It was already known that Posey and Hyde had spoken but wasn’t clear until today whether that was an official managerial interview or a chat about some other potential role. Hundley was widely viewed as the early favorite, but he took himself out of consideration because of family commitments.
Vitello told reporters that he has had preliminary conversations as he puts together his first MLB coaching staff. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic covers a few possibilities. He notes that Vitello was a college teammate of Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler, who’d managed the Padres between 2020-21.
Tingler was Rocco Baldelli’s top assistant in Minnesota for the past four seasons, but the Twins fired Baldelli and tabbed Derek Shelton as their manager. Meanwhile, Baggarly relays that the Giants could look to bring back former outfield/first base coach Antoan Richardson. Richardson held that role for four seasons before leaving to take the first base coach job with the Mets in 2024. It was reported this week that he would not be back in Queens because the sides were unable to agree on a new contract.
Good for him. He succeeded at the highest level he’s been at and now is getting a chance at the next level.
I hope he does well enough for Giants fans to be happy. And only well enough to fight San Diego for second place in the NL West annually.
I suspect that there will be a lot of collaboration on the staff and likely some carryover. I’d be very surprised if J.P. Martinez isn’t retained as pitching coach. While he may have no MiLB/ MLB experience this article suggests he was very much on MLB’s radar.
The NL West and baseball in general, is better when the San Francisco Giants are relevant.
Actually Baseball is better when the Los Angeles Dodgers are doing what they have been doing for 12 of the last 13 years (winning the division title an now 3 World Series championships with more probably coming.
It’s interesting to learn that other teams were interested in Vitello in 2024.
As long as Matt Williams is gone all will be fine with whomever they bring in.
From the article: Posey was ready to move on from Melvin before the end of the season. However, on July 1, they picked up his option.
We should assume this added to the price of paying him to go away. If they had concerns, why not assess before picking up the option? What does this say about the business judgement of Posey?
Furthermore how does Posey belong in that job? Sure he was a great catcher but cmon man.
It was a very poor business decision.
lol. You posting that it was a
very poor business decision was a very poor decision for your credibility. How the fark would you have the slightest idea on the business in that decision ?
Fop-you aren’t the one that should be talking about other people‘s credibility. You’ve always sounded like one of the most miserable people on here. Since you’re wondering though anytime you cost your company that many millions of dollars it’s not a good business decision.
Cool. Thanks for the feedback. I’ll try and sound cheerier.
Really. What if they make the playoffs next year ? How does it look then ?
Wow, you convinced me. How can anyone argue with “cmon man”? Facts like that are so hard to dispute.
Posey took a chance in giving the extension and it didn’t end up working out. If he hadn’t then Melvin would have been a lame duck manager and they likely would have finished even worse and probably lost money in revenue in the process. I respect that he did it as a show of faith in his manager as opposed to hanging him out to dry the rest of the season. Had it worked he would be considered pretty smart but paying Melvin 4 million to leave ultimately isn’t really that big of a deal and it was the right thing to do for Posey and really the only thing he had left to help sleepy bob get his S together. Truth is that Posey is making bold moves and isn’t afraid to fail. He has the balls to do what so many GM/VP’s are afraid to do. Time will tell but I am all in on an aggressive leadership not afraid to take chances.
Frugal-you sound like a solid business man. lol. Are you sure it was only $4 million total? If you work for me and you piss away that many millions of dollars you’re gonna be looking for a new job. I don’t know what world you and Foppert live in but it’s kind of funny reading what you guys write
You must own a small business. Plumber? Think of it as me asking if we could install some free toilet seats for a pissed off client that was on the verge of firing you. You spent $100 to buy the toilet seats and pay me to install them and the client fired you anyway. Would you show me the door for trying to find a solution to the problem even though it didn’t ultimately work out or would you understand it was a necessary investment to help save the situation? That is about the equivalent of what it costs the Giants to make this move… 4 million to them is like $100 to you.
Ha ha. Unlike you, I live in a world where I don’t pretend to know mlb business decisions and there ramifications. Shoot me know.
You’re right. I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Ok. You win.
CLNC, So what should Posey have done? End of June, after an excellent start, the team is starting to falter. He has a lame duck manager. Other teams in the past have tried to avoid that situation, usually extending, or picking up the option in the off-season. The only difference was Posey waited until 7/1.
It’s possible Posey wanted to move on from Melvin when his deal was up. Which would be why he didn’t pick up the option in the offseason. But, with their hot start, and the possibility of a playoff berth, decided to do away with the uncertainty in the clubhouse and pick up the option, removing the lame duck status.
It’s SOP, that other teams have fired their manager with an extra year on the contract, that was added the previous offseason. Why does the timeline make the Giants’ situation so different? it doesn’t really.
It’s easy to see in hindsight that Posey could have saved the team money, But’s it’s using that hindsight, and it’s reductive, to say just because they lost $4M it was bad management.
So what should Posey, without a crystal ball, have done?
Right.
None of this post makes sense because the writer doesn’t know what the phrase “lame duck” means. Melvin would have been a lame duck if Posey had already hired his successor. Like a politician who has lost a bid for re-election and is just serving out his term. If Posey had already decided to fire him and then extended him, yes that would be a business decision made by an amateur.
A lame-duck MLB manager is not the same thing as a lame-duck politician. A lame-duck manager is a manager whose contract is nearing expiration without a new deal. How many times has a new manager been hired while the previous one is still managing? I’d guess never.
It’s been common practice to refer to an MLB manager, in the last season of his contract, as a lame-duck. That’s whether a replacement has been hired or not, because of the uncertainty. If the team didn’t intend to replace the manager, they would’ve extended, or picked up the option on him.
It’s possible that there was some form of contractual language specified in said contract that required a decision to be made by July 1st. That’s the only thing I could see being a reason why they would tentatively pick it up. But you make a good point: why even do it if you’re uncertain? And I cannot fathom that one.
In MLB to leave a manager in a lame duck status is a faux paus. Most every team will ensure their manager is signed through at least the next year’s season.
This provides both the manager and the players security, knowing who will remain in charge for the foreseeable future.
(Notable exceptions: Kurt Suzuki just signed a one-year deal to manage the Angels. And back in the 2000’s, Jim Leland insisted he be signed to a series of one-year deals as manager of the Tigers, as he contemplated retirement each offseason.)
If you don’t sign the manager for next season, even when you are unlikely to actually retain him, then you risk undercutting his authority in the locker room.
What’s more, his salary does not count in the payroll calculus. And every team has dead money being paid out several times over. Add it up, and this is all just the cost of doing business.
Except most teams do that before the season starts. Not 3 months into the season. The team was playing better then. That’s why it happened.
Not only that, like Melvin or otherwise, he has been named 3 times manager of the year for a reason. Whether Melvin has not gotten to the WS yet that’s a separate matter but his accomplishments are there…
-> In MLB to leave a manager in a lame duck status is a faux paus. Most every team will ensure their manager is signed through at least the next year’s season.
Fair enough. But given what I have read about the more recent decisions by some teams, this is nolonger the case.
–> his salary does not count in the payroll calculus.
A fine point. However, speaking as a Rays fan, 3 million dollars is a quantity that could have been spent on upgrading from Taylor Walls.
The Giants are in an entirely different financial place than the Rays. The Giants have money to burn. The financial cost in picking up Melvin’s option, and then firing him, is miniscule for them.
True. But wasting money may be a reason why SFG has won only 4 playoff games since the last WS win. (LAD has won 69.) And the Rays have won 54 more games during the regular season since 2015. The question has to be asked.
Well obviously having money to spend would lead one to conclude the lack of it is not the cause of the the low number of playoff wins.
How about giving Farhan the keys to the kingdom as the reason they are in this situation? His strategy of overpaying on one year deals or platoon players and some of the worst drafting and development in baseball history has a lot more to do than the amount of money they spent. Posey is digging us out of the hole FZ got us into and it may take another year or two
Worst drafting and development in baseball history. Wow. Who is second and third worst ?
Keep trying to make Farhan rants still relevant. Probably best to just change your profile and move on. SFG did.
frugalfarhan, Every team overpays on one year deals. That’s standard practice throughout MLB. The shorter the deal the higher the AAV. And short deals with the higher AAV is what most teams want. The only reason that teams sign longer term deals is because that’s what the player wants, not the team.
And like a lot of fans that hate platooning, the fact is it works. Platooning was a huge factor in the Giants winning 107 games in 2021. Plus that is also more in the realm of the manager. Kapler was a huge believer in platooning.
And while Zaidi left the Giants’ farm ranked about 18th, it was actually worse when he took over. In 2018 BA had them ranked 26th, Fangraphs at 24th, and MLB.com had them at 27th.
It’s obvious to everyone that you still bear hate for Zaidi, and it’s just as obvious to everyone that that hate clouds your perspective.
There may be a good reason they didn’t let Melvin go without these costs that could have been used for pitching, pitching and pitching. The reason we don’t know why they chose to do what they did is that nobody asked the right questions. This site merely parrots what one can read online. It’s up to journalists like AP to ask the right questions.
I think most of the concerns were how he managed after the extension, which caused Posey to sell at the deadline and change his views on Melvin. Buster is new to these situations and is learning from them. I have no problem with that. mainly cuz I’m not writing the checks..
Buster has explained this. He thought it was the right thing to do for the clubhouse. They were still in the hunt at that stage.
I believe Posey picking up the option on Melvin early was his way of showing confidence in the team to try and get them over the hump. What followed was a team that went through a horrible stretch, especially at home and pretty much took them out of a playoff berth. Usually when there is a collapse later in the season the manager is history. Yes, it cost them some money but I understand what the front office tried to do. Just my observation.
I like the hire, SF is going out of the box while bringing in a top college coach. We shall see how it turns out. But woof, costing 7 million more than you are already paying Vitello. While those were separate moves I sure hope he delivers. This is like paying 3 managers at once
Giants have plenty of money. They won’t lose any sleep over this.
Giving and then eating that money shows just how much Posey wants to win. At the time it was made, it was the best decision for winning last year. Didn’t work out. Eating it, is about structural change and winning in the near future.
Considering how much fans cry about the whole investing in winning thing, it’s hard to criticise.
Also shows how much faith the owners have in that approach.
I didn’t realize they had picked up Melvin’s option on July 1st. But looking back on things, I’m kinda surprised. Sure, you can say they fell apart in July… but it looks like the slump started in June. They start a 3 game set against the Dodgers on June 13th, winning game one. They’re now 12 games over .500, tied for NL West lead, and 3.5 games up on the Brewers who are clawing to get into the race.
The rest of June they go 4-11 and what a difference two weeks makes. They’re 5 games over .500, third place in the NL West and 8 behind the Dodgers, and now 1.5 games out of the wild card race. And those two weeks should have been a cakewalk, discounting the last 2 losses to the Dodgers. They added a slugger and played 13 games against sub-500 teams mostly in San Francisco where they had a dominating 22-11 record as of June 15th. The only series they won was against Boston, interestingly enough.
To go from having a chance to snatch the NL West title and confident enough at add to the payroll long term with Devers to suddenly floundering. Kinda seems like no matter what the situation was, picking up Melvin’s option… just weird.
It was a message to the team that upper management believed in them, the team had a great 1st half and started wobbling as they approached the break but had just added Devers and were hoping to light a fire coming out for the second half. . Same as when a closer gets shelled one night and the manager puts them back in the very next chance to let them know they have confidence in them. Unfortunately after giving him better tools to work, Melvin lead the team to a historically bad run and ownership sold off pieces to make the 2026 team better.
I can see the argument but to me that just makes it seem like a bigger gamble. It’s just such a drastic change between the time when they trade for Devers and when they pick up Melvin’s option. Going by fan graphs in this time period they went from a 65% chance of making the playoff to about 32%.
Yes, it can be seen as an attempt to light a fire. But the closer analogy is a little different. With the closer the point is together back on the horse right away, keep the problem out of his head. But here, we’re talking about a significant two week slide. It’s closer to an analogy of your closer gets shelled three nights in a row. At that point your manager is wondering if a lesser role is better for the closer.
I really want to know why they didn’t wait until the all star break or the trade deadline. Was there gentleman’s agreement on a deadline? Did Melvin put a ticking clock on the option early in the year? They had to know that things could go badly and the best scapegoat would be Melvin himself.
It’s entirely possible that that two week slide was attributed to the uncertainty of Melvin being a lame duck. And Posey, wanting the team to focus on playing, and not wondering about the future of leadership in the dugout, picked up the option. Doing so sooner rather than later was better if their uneven play was due to that uncertainty.
Can I get a transcript of how tf two sides were unable to come to an agreement on a contract…. for a 1B coach?
1st Base coaches are a dime a dozen.
My Take. Concerns about never managing at the major league level are valid. The length of season. The in season moves. The fact he’s now managing professionals instead of college kids coming up in the world.
– Maxing out for 60 plus games is way different. Competition level is different. Expectation level is different. He’s not going to get 5 years to build a program. Nor will Posey. Whatever Posey thinks.
– Which leads to in season moves. Building trust with these guys who have been here. Know the routines. Know more than him. Coaches even. This guy would do wonders as a bench coach learning the game bringing experience first with the younger guys/players then expanding that role. This will get rocky I believe.
– Players will give a chance, But it seems to me Posey will be micro managing as well. This guy is going to need a lot of help, And Posey probably wants a guy he can control. Who will listen to only him. I always thought Posey would be a great manager himself. Having this guy down there seems about right, someone that doesn’t know much will learn the Posey way and instill Posey’s wants. And how many seasons will this take ? Ownership wants to win and is giving Posey unlimited rain. What we need is to cut down on strikeouts and sign some rabbits at second and left. Trade Lee and get Ramos out of leadoff maybe trade him too. Sign at least 2 solid Starters and a bullpen right. And probably trade Chapman, too many K’s. Fix the pitching and the timely hitting. Defense as well. Lot to do.
– Melvin was a Mummy. I hated his lineups and his history proves he’s not a long term guy and gets worse as he goes. They needed someone obviously. A younger rah rah guy over Bochy ? I’d rather have Boch but they just weren’t ready for that type of high level play to have him here.
Too long of a rant.
Had to bail at “unlimited rain”
Rain is bad for baseball.
Reign on Me ?
Horse Ryder ?
After a restart I did enjoy the mummy Melvin reference.
Trade Chapman? Yeah….hard pass.
Well, Having 3 guys who punch out 150 plus times a season hitting 2-4 or 3-5 is nuts. As you see the offense stalls considerably and must be addressed. I love Chapman. His glove is great. But he’s 33 next year I believe. Adames can slide to 3rd. Get a slick fielder for short and second guys who get on base move runners over steal. I forgot the guy who covered for chappy at 3rd and second but he seems another low BA guy some homers lots of Ks.
Also I the Devs won’t strikeout as much next year. New league adjustment. The guy is HOF calibur hitter.
Get guys who get on base and hit the ball over the fence. Moving runners over has very little to do with winning.
Chapman isn’t going anywhere. His stats went down because of his injury which was caused by how hard he plays. He’s as good a teammate as you can get. The Giants record was considerably worse when he was on IL. There are players throughout the league with high strikeout totals who are very valuable to their teams.
Yeah, trading Chapman makes zero sense. Even with the loss of time he had the highest bWAR on the team. SOs, though not good, don’t tell the whole story. Guys like Kyle Schwarber (4.7 bWAR), Cal Raleigh (7.3 bWAR), and Shohei Ohtani (7.7 bWAR) all had more SOs than Chapman.
More precisely Chapman had better BB per SO, and AB per SO than Schwarber, and Raleigh. And he had a better AB per SO than Ohtani. Ohtani had a slightly better BB per SO, 1.72 to 1.77.
I love it when people say things like get “…a slick fielder for short…”. Like it’s that easy. Most slick fielders are glove-first, and the majority of those are glove-only.
The Giants are getting great production out of the SS position and the solution is to move Adames to 3B, and fix what isn’t broken?
The positional core of this team is Devers, Adames, Chapman, Bailey, and Lee. Those are the pieces to build around, not mess with.
Fair enough. But they need pitchers. Good pitchers. Payroll notwithstanding. Have to be creative. Which Posey is
Boch? Old, hobbled, slow, yesterday’s news. Why would anyone want to go from one mummy to another? May as well bring back the Brandons.
Giants need fire. They got it in Vitello.
I agree with Fire. But having zero experience and fire means nothing. Rah rah like I said. This guy seems he can always go back to Tennessee if it doesn’t work out for a few seasons. Give it a shot kind of guy. Posey is going to be very involved in all aspects of players coming up lineups. With BoMel the lineups were wonky then they weren’t, definitely Posey influence when they looked somewhat regular.
Bochy isn’t geared for a rebuild team. The greatest modern manger in baseball who just won a ring in Texas ? You wouldn’t want him leading a playoff ready squad ??? That’s Crazy. Posey young wants his guy, rebuild, I get it.
They said they would reach out to Boch to have him come back as a consultant anyway.
You obviously didn’t read what Drew Gilbert had to say about the Giants hiring his college coach. He made a point that Vitello’s leadership was not at all rah-rah.
JayRyder: I know it’s a matter of opinion but I don’t see the Giants in a rebuild. I honestly believe they’re on the edge of contending.
I would say needing at least 2 Major league Starters needing to rebuild a bullpen. Having a horrible offense at times with tons of Ks. Something has to done. And trading from a surplus which would be high value position players could net a solid starter and perhaps a bullpen piece. Chapman to me has the highest value for this.
Spending massively on free agents for all needs I don’t believe will be on the table. Trades will be coming. Ramos definitely a trade option, bad defense. Or a DH for us. Lee too expensive. They need young hitters at 2nd and right. Catcher ? Maybe but he came around enough to stay with a solid backup.
This could be because of Melvin as a Mummy as I said. Did not like him at all. I think Posey will have much more say this season with the rookie manager who appears to say the right things. But will be learning on the fly.
– To me maybe not a total rebuild, But a definite continual refresh.
Wow, not too hyperbolic are we. Horrible offense? Average maybe, even mediocre, but not horrible. They had a team OPS+ of 99, League average is 100.
Tons of Ks? They had the 12th most in MLB, all of 25 more than League average. They had fewer SOs, than the Yankees, Red Sox, Reds, Tigers, and Mariners, all playoff teams. Maybe you should look at some stats to put things in context instead of relying on your perception.
Chapman is part of the core group. His value is not surplus. Surplus is when there’s a reliable replacement to step in, and the Giants have no one to replace what he does. The idea of trading him is beyond ridiculous.
If Lee is too expensive, which I don’t believe he is, then his trade value won’t be great. But trading him would be a mistake IMO, since last season was one of him learning pitchers and parks. I expect him to progress next season.
It will be a balance of FA signings and trades with greater emphasis on FAs. The Giants are a wealthy club with a lot of space under the tax threshold. They will spend this year. There isn’t a lot of trade value among guys like Ramos. Trades would mostly be from the farm, but they do not want to trade a lot of their prospects. The Giants will do what most teams do, not rebuild, or even retool, but look for upgrades in the least productive positions.
Stats Huh tell all ??? Enough Said. Thanks Farhan.
Well, stats will help you from posting great inaccuracies.
And what’s Farhan got to do with anything Bobby Evans?
Just listening to him tells you that.
At Jean.
Life is not twitter.
Matt Chapman has a no trade clause and is arguably the most important player on the giants…
Giants should probably bring in Hyde, Baldelli or someone with some big league managing experience to serve as Vitello’s bench coach. He may have run his NCAA team “like an MLB team” but over the long grueling haul they are completely different animals
With the buyout, dead money on the Melvin contract, that’s a lot for an unproven major league manager. Posey better be right.
What does the financial aspects of firing Melvin have to do with the guy they picked to be manager? Vitello is responsible for what happens on the field. Posey is responsible for trades and acquisitions, contracts, and the allocation of resources. If Posey is wrong about Vitello they’ll move on, and as part of ownership he’ll be alright.
Loved the press conference. Vitello is an impressive guy. All about the human. I like it. Gave me a softer, more humble Kapler vibe.
Richardson is a big loss for the Mets! Money? Really?
Guru: Your post just screams desperation at trolling and need for attention.
Echoes from the past, regurgitated.
wow! such a bold hot take
I am not sure how or why the narrative of the Melvin option being picked up and later his dismissal is confusing anyone, at anyone watching the team daily.
His option was picked up early July, SF held a wild card spot they were set to be buyer. Made perfect sense. The team then went on to have a historically bad rest of July. This is a team with a century+ of history and the worst of that bad play at home. They ended up being sellers and at that time his fate seemed sealed.
The NYM falling back tp the rest of the NL made Sept interesting but ownership and front office saw roster talent far greater than their final .500 record. I am not certain even a wild card birth would have saved Melvin’s job. SFG cut the exit checks on Melvin and paid the contract buyout checks to move forward.
I like the hire in that this team is now younger. Yes they have an established core but their younger players require continued development at the MLB level. Players need to not only stick they need to hopefully develop closer to their ceilings. Kapler’s staff did well there both with AAAA players and former 1st rounders, however not as much with the farm system. Bart and Luciano are poster children for this, you can argue even Bailey’s struggles at the plate is problematic.
Desperation how? They interviewed a number of candidates, some with MLB managing experience. Posey could have easily done the conservative thing and hired one of them. It’s hardly desperation to make a calculated move after completing due diligence.
It’s very interesting the hate comments I’m seeing for Buster Posey.
From why is he in that position and more all kind of crazy. All he can really do is get the giants the best team and build the farm to help provide that.
The Los Angeles Dodgers are easily the class of all of MLB in almost all categories from ownership to upper management to manager (who absolutely cemented himself as a hall of fame manager to the players and all that reflected in the entire organizational culture of winning. (Last 13 years 69 playoff wins, 12 division titles,3 world championships with maybe more to come. It starts with Ownership do they want to build that?