Tony Vitello has brought ‘needed’ energy as SF Giants new manager

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The top step of the dugout, at the entrance closest to home plate, is the post Tony Vitello has come to prefer in his six weeks or so as a professional baseball manager.

He’s not dogmatic about it and doesn’t consider himself superstitious, which is one thing that separates him from his predecessor, who was known to determine his personal routines based on the outcome of the previous night’s game.

The contrasts between the 40th manager in Giants franchise history and the 39th extend to their age (47 vs. 64), their previous managerial experience (none vs. two decades for four teams), even their height (5-foot-11 vs. 6-4) and facial hair (bearded vs. clean-shaven).

The biggest difference from Bob Melvin to the new guy was almost universally agreed upon by players in a survey of the clubhouse at the end of Vitello’s first spring training.

“I love his energy,” starter Robbie Ray said.

Giants manager Tony Vitello is poised to make history Wednesday, when the team opens its 2026 MLB season. AP

“Way more energetic,” reliever Ryan Walker added.

“The energy he has, the personality that he brings with him, he’s pushing everybody to be better,” shortstop Willy Adames agreed. “It’s something that we needed.”

Vitello rose from a recruiter into a national champion coach at the University of Tennessee, where his teams were known for their intensity and antics before the success that followed. 

When he arrived in Knoxville, the Vols weren’t just a sleeping giant. They lacked personality.

“I would rather we make the adjustment and we go so far that we have to correct it, and that’s definitely what happened,” Vitello said. “We kind of let the guys organically be who they were.”

Batters flipped the bird at opposing pitchers on their way up the first base line. Pitchers hurled expletives toward the on-deck circle. Drew Gilbert, now reunited with Vitello as a Giants outfield prospect, went viral for his NSFW celebrations upon reaching second base.

Ultimately, the culture created a winner.

“Oh, I think we went over (the line),” Vitello said. “I grew up in a household where if you hit a double, you run as fast as humanly possible to second base and you just get ready to be a base runner. You don’t do any celebrating. But it’s part of the deal.”

If there’s two things Vitello’s teams at Tennessee weren’t, it was boring or mediocre, the two biggest indictments of a franchise in San Francisco that finished .500 or close to it and missed the playoffs the past four seasons.

Still, no coach had ever been hired directly from college to become a big-league manager. History began to be written when general manager Zack Minasian made a “harmless” phone call to his boss, top baseball executive Buster Posey.

“I asked him, ‘What do you think about this one? I think he’d be really interesting to talk to,’” Minasian recalled to The California Post. “Buster felt the same, and it just grew from there.”

The unprecedented hire sent shockwaves through professional baseball while critics questioned whether Vitello had paid his dues. But in the SEC, those close to the program “weren’t shocked at all,” according to one source granted anonymity to speak freely, citing the shifting NIL landscape and a lack of financial support from the athletics department at Tennessee.

Vitello, who helped lead the University of Tennessee to a national championship, has energized the franchise. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Vitello’s agent is Jimmy Sexton, who also represents Nick Saban, and put them in touch when “College GameDay” visited Knoxville in September, three weeks before the Giants job was open.

Before becoming one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, Saban attempted to make the jump to the NFL but lasted only two seasons with the Dolphins.

Riding together on the back of a golf cart on their way to the set of the “Pat McAfee Show,” Saban “had some words of advice about the type of decision that I was confronted with,” Vitello told The Post.

“I don’t think to me in particular he spoke in specific about his circumstances, but I think there’s a good chance he’d say that he’s very blessed … that when it was time to go back (to college) for him, mentally, that job (at Alabama) was open.”

Even Minasian had his doubts, but those concerns have been alleviated this spring. Vitello’s club looked like an invigorated group with the second-best record in Cactus League play.

“It’s just a natural (question), someone in his position who coached in college, how are professional players going to react to him?” Minasian said. “I don’t know if it could have gone any better this spring. …

“There’s a lot of personality. A lot of charisma. And I think the more we get to know him, he’s very genuine. He’s very authentic. He cares deeply about those players in the clubhouse. I think those are the things that you really start to see more and more.”

Never earning a dime for his playing skills hasn’t stopped Vitello from jumping in on Pitcher Fielding Practice, picking up a fungo or even throwing batting practice (so far, just behind the scenes). He blares EDM in pop-up drills to mimic crowd noise and hangs out with players away from the ballpark. Adames said their interactions are split equally between “giving each other s—” and picking each other’s brains on baseball.

Vitello’s hands-on approach in spring training drills stems from watching the way his dad, Greg, went about coaching high school kids at DeSmet High outside St. Louis.

Vitello has been hanging out with his players away from the ballpark, and Giants players are enjoying that. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

“I really, really liked practices,” Greg Vitello, a Missouri Sports Hall of Famer, told The Post. “I just thought that every time I went out for practice, this was a teaching moment. I think that carried over to him. I know he spends a lot, a lot of time preparing for practice.” 

Reliever Erik Miller is the only player who can say he played for Greg and his son. He was a sophomore at DeSmet in Greg’s final year before retiring.

“His dad certainly had energy,” Miller chuckled. “It was definitely more of a hard edge (than Tony), more militaristic, more old school. Like, you’re gonna do the little things right, and that’s ingrained in everything.”

The Giants lost at least six games in a row three separate times down the stretch on their way to an 81-81 finish last season and were prone to being “listless,” one player said. Players wondered if they would have snapped out of those skids earlier if there was more cohesion in the clubhouse rather than, as another said, “the manager being separated in his own office.”

Matt Chapman, who played for Melvin and his coaching staff in nine of his 11 big-league seasons, said he was “bummed to see them go,” but the recruiter in Vitello quickly got another commitment. Posey greased the wheels with a phone call to the veteran third baseman when the Giants were closing in on their decision.

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“I trust Buster, so I didn’t need much convincing,” Chapman said. “And after I talked to Tony, I was all on board. … He’s open-minded and willing to learn. He knows a lot and is really smart, but he doesn’t think he knows it all. I think that’s a good quality to have.”

The bigger questions left to be answered are the ones that couldn’t be in carefully mapped-out spring exhibitions, including bullpen management.

Vitello has formed a good relationship with the quartet of decision-makers in the Giants’ front office — Posey, Minasian, Jeremy Shelley and Paul Bien — whom he has taken to calling “The Four Horsemen Upstairs.” He recalled his dad talking over game strategy with his assistants over a round of Busch.

Toward the end of camp, Vitello fired off a text to the group.

“Who’s ready for me to start some crap and have a debate here?”

But he said Posey has encouraged autonomy in setting the lineup.

“Any decision we make is going to be a group effort, and there will be no stone left unturned prior to doing it,” Vitello said. “Whatever it is we choose to do, we’re going full steam ahead. Ultimately, I have the final say.”

Vitello has been weirded out slightly by Giants players’ rigid routines. Getty Images

Vitello has never experienced the pomp and circumstance of an MLB Opening Day because it conflicted with the college schedule. He’ll get two opportunities this week with Wednesday’s Opening Night on Netflix and the Giants’ traditional home opener Friday afternoon.

So far this spring, Vitello said he’s been impressed by the professionalism of professional players. At first, he was a little weirded out by their rigid routines. 

“It’s comical. If you stand in one spot different than you normally are supposed to stand, the next two hours of everyone’s day is thrown off,” he laughed. “You also can’t treat it like voodoo. Like I didn’t have my SmartWater before the game so I have no chance of being smart.”

And that, folks, is the Tony Vitello experience, in a nutshell.

At various other points, he hypothesized about a player having “too much pasta” the night before a game. His biggest critique of the World Baseball Classic was the Wendy’s commercial he kept getting fed. He made headlines in the early days of camp by going on what he described as a “tangent.” It was merely a peek into Vitello’s mind, prone to going anywhere, at any time, no matter the prompt.

As camp came to a close, the new manager was asked if he felt like he’s had to tone anything down communicating with major-league players as opposed to the 18-to-22-year-olds he dealt with in college.

“Let’s go with the honest answer,” he said. “I think I need to kick it up a notch more than tone it down.”