The man who hired Tony Vitello delivers strong message about the former Vols coach amid the Giants’ disastrous start to the season
Former Tennessee Volunteers head baseball coach Tony Vitello is in his first season as the manager of the San Francisco Giants, and things haven’t exactly gotten off to a good start.
Tony Vitello’s first two months as the manager of the San Francsico Giants haven’t gone great.
Vitello, who in his first season in the big leagues after leading the Tennessee Vols baseball program for eight seasons, has seen his team get off to one of the worst starts in MLB this season.
Additionally, Vitello has dealt with plenty of criticism from the media due to some of his in-game decision making.
It’s been so rough for Vitello that some Giants fans already predicting that he’ll return to Tennessee after the season (while others think he’ll go to Arkansas).
Buster Posey shares thoughts on Tony Vitello
Giants President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey, the man who hired Vitello this past October, joined KNBR this week and shared his view of how the first two months of the regular season have gone for Vitello.
Posey, who spent his entire playing career with the Giants, made it clear that he thinks Vitello has been “solid”.
“Tony’s been solid,” said Posey, a future Hall of Famer. “You talk about frustration or anybody that’s wearing this hard, I don’t think there’s anybody out there that’s wearing it harder than him. I do feel like one of the most important things for me in this role and the rest of us that have been in pro ball, to your point, college is 50, 60 games, whatever it is, and Major League Baseball is 162 — plus roughly 30 in spring training, and hopefully the games you’re playing in the postseason. So it’s a much longer game.
“I’m just trying to relay to him like, ‘Hey man, stay the course, keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t keep doing what we’re doing, because obviously what we’re doing is not working. But keep putting the work in.’ You have to believe that the work that you put in is going to pay off. And ultimately, what else can anybody do than show up and do their job? And if you show up and do your job, sometimes it’s going to work, and sometimes it’s not. Do we wish we were 30-20? Of course we do. Nobody’s happy about where we started. And I can promise you Tony’s wearing it harder than anybody is.”
Vitello has almost certainly taken too much heat for the Giants’ slow start. For starters, he was always going to experience some growing pains as he makes the transition to the big leagues for the first time in his career. And secondly, the Giants’ roster has plenty of flaws (which is out of Vitello’s control).
The good news for Vitello is that there’s a lot of season left, so there’s still plenty of time for the Giants to change the narrative. And the man who makes the decisions is in his corner, so Vitello should feel secure, at least for now, that his job is safe.