Former Vols coach Tony Vitello had to face a tough situation with a veteran Giants player and he sent a big message at the same time
Former Tennessee Volunteers baseball coach Tony Vitello faced his first tough clubhouse situation with a veteran San Francisco Giants player, but he handled it extremely well.
Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello had to deal with a tough situation this week.
Vitello, in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants, had to address shortstop Willy Adames’ poor base running in a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this week.
Adames, who has been in the big leagues since 2018, forgot how many outs there were and he ran the Giants out of a scoring opportunity because of his blunder.
It was pointed out by numerous fans and media members that Adames made the mistake after spending much of the at bat chatting with Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts.
Tony Vitello has tough conversation with Willy Adames
Vitello, who had no previous MLB experience before taking the job with the Giants, is facing these types of situations for the first time in the big leagues.
Holding a veteran MLB player accountable is obviously much different than holding a college player accountable, something Vitello’s had to do many times over the years.
Vitello, though, handled the situation with Adames about as well as he could have.
The former Tennessee coach told reporters that players have to be ready to score any time the ball is put in play, while also, perhaps somewhat indirectly, addressing the conversation that happened in-game between Adames and Betts.
“I think the biggest thing is when the ball is put in play, you’ve got to be trying to win the game as best as possible, no matter who you are or what you said to somebody,” said Vitello. “But I’ve seen Junior Caminero talk to people on our team and then absolutely slit our throat. Gunnar Henderson seems to be that type of guy, too. … Already knows everybody and is cordial, but same thing, a guy that will slit our throat.”
Vitello met with Adames about the incident, but most of the conversation, according to Tony V, was about “reviewing that and getting on the same page with what happened. But the majority of it was about what we’ve got to do to win today’s game.”
Adames, to his credit, made it clear that he was “ashamed” of he mistake.
“That mistake is probably the most ashamed that I would feel playing the game,” said Adames. “I know that can’t happen. It was my fault. That’s on me.”
Quite a few fans wanted Adames benched for a game because of the blunder, but Vitello kept the shortstop in the lineup on Thursday night because it gave the Giants the best chance to win the game.
“[Landen Roupp] is one of the biggest groundball guys in the entire league and I want him to get what he deserves out there, as far as the best defense behind him,” said Vitello while explaining why Adames was in the lineup. “So that’s got a lot to do with it, but there’s other factors as well.”
I don’t think Vitello could’ve handled that any better. He sent the message that accountability is important, and that winning the game that day is always going to be the top priority. It was a tough needle to thread, but Vitello managed to find a way.