Former Tennessee coach Tony Vitello may have already broken an unwritten MLB clubhouse rule with the San Francisco Giants
Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello is having a rough start as the manager of the San Francisco Giants. Vitello is quickly learning how different life is in the big leagues.
It’s been a challenging start to the 2026 MLB season for San Francisco Giants rookie manager Tony Vitello.
Vitello, who guided the Tennessee Vols to a national championship in 2024, was hired by the Giants despite having no previous MLB or minor league experience.
Baseball is baseball at the end of the day. But things are done much differently in the big leagues than in the college game.
And Vitello is quickly learning about some of those differences.
Tony Vitello may have already broken an unwritten MLB rule
The MLB clubhouse is a sacred place.
And typically, what happens in the clubhouse — specifically during the time when reporters aren’t allowed in — stays in the clubhouse.
That’s why it was odd this week to hear Vitello, without being provoked, bring up a couple of behind-closed-doors altercations between teammates.
Giants third baseman Matt Chapman, who went viral early last week for telling a teammate to “catch the f—ing ball”, had a really bad week. In addition to the viral moment, Chapman made four errors in one week, and he was inexplicably thrown out trying to steal last Sunday in the 9th inning of the Giants’ 5-2 loss to the New York Mets.
Vitello told reporters that Chapman lashing out on the field at his teammate wasn’t the only altercation the Giants have had early this season before referencing two other behind-the-scenes incidents that weren’t previously reported.
“I thought a couple things we were able to keep from you guys (media), which is great,” said Vitello on Monday before the Giants’ game against the Philadelphia Phillies. “But if you lump those two and the one you’re referencing (Chapman’s viral moment), which is kind of the meeting on the mound, we’ve really only had three things that have been — I don’t want to say controversial, because that’s a mislabel — but kind of some intensity back and forth a little bit. We’ve played our best three games following those.”
“The two behind the scenes were probably less harmless than that (Chapman),” added Vitello. “But because it’s behind the scenes, it doesn’t get a sounding board, and there’s not a chance for everybody to voice their opinion. Which, right or wrong, that’s kind of the way it is nowadays.”
There was just no reason for Vitello to bring up the two unreported incidents. There’s no positive for the Giants in making that information public. In fact, it can be harmful if anything. Vitello, after all, provided no context for the incidents, which means they can take on a life of their own on social media.
I appreciate Vitello’s candidness, and I think it’s good for the game, but he still has to be judicious in what he reveals to the media — specifically when it comes to things that happen behind closed doors in the clubhouse.
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