When former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello’s name was first connected to the San Francisco Giants, most people dismissed it as something that would likely never happen.

And then when former MLB catcher Nick Hundley was named by several outlets as the front-runner for the job, Vols fans breathed a sigh of relief.

That sigh of relief, however, turned out to be nothing more than whistling in the graveyard.

Hundley removed his name from consideration, and Vitello quickly became the Giants’ top target.

Nick Hundley was never offered the job by the Giants

The assumption by many is that the Giants moved on to Vitello after Hundley turned down the job.

Reporting from The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly, though, suggests that may not have been the case.

Baggarly noted on Thursday, after the Giants introduced Vitello as their new manager, that Hundley was never offered the job.

“The Giants never formally offered the job to former Giants catcher Nick Hundley,” wrote Baggarly. “But when he removed his name from consideration, Vitello was at the top of their list. Vitello had flown out to San Francisco for a full day of interviews and interactions with several members of the front office.”

Based on everything that Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey said during Vitello’s intro presser on Thursday, it sounds like San Francisco was going back and forth on whether to make Vitello their top target. Once Hundley removed his name from consideration, it made the decision to make Vitello their top target easy for the Giants.

This article was originally published on A to Z Sports Tennessee Vols as New report clarifies one aspect of the process the Giants went through to hire Tony Vitello away from Tennessee.

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