Giants predicted to make unexpected Tony Vitello decision amid 2026 disaster

The San Francisco Giants are in the middle of a brutal 2026 season. They've dealt with a plethora of injuries; they sold at the trade deadline, shipping out plenty of key players, and they're sitting near the bottom of the league overall.

With a 55-79 record, the Tony Vitello experience in San Francisco has gotten off to a terrible start. His debut season got off to a poor start, and now, as August is coming to a close, nothing's gotten better.

Sports Illustrated's Karl Rasmussen is predicting that Vitello, rather than getting fired amid a brutal debut season as an MLB manager, will get another shot in 2027 as the Giants manager.

Giants predicted to keep Tony Vitello despite disastrous 2026 season

"He didn't inherit the greatest situation in San Francisco, and while it's been a fairly disappointing season, he'll likely be given a long leash as he finds his footing in MLB," Rasmussen writes.

A team as bad as the Giants might normally fire their manager, especially considering the massive payroll allocated to the big league roster.

But since the Giants are paying Vitello a lot as well, and he just made the foray into the Major League Baseball world, there is a reason to give him one more chance in 2027.

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The hope would be that after getting a test of the Majors in 2026, Vitello can right some parts of the ship and turn the Giants from a bottom-of-the-league team back into a postseason contender.

It's possible, as the Giants do have a strong core and got some high-quality prospects in return from their deadline deals involving Luis Arraez, Robbie Ray, and Heliot Ramos.

Would it be a surprise if the Giants fired Vitello? No. Would it be surprising if he got another year? Also no. But keeping him, despite how terribly 2026 has gone, would be a little bit unexpected, at least from the outside looking in.

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