Report: Tony Vitello closing in on deal to become San Francisco Giants manager

The San Francisco Giants are closing in Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello as their next manager, The Athletic reported. Vitello’s name has come up in connection with multiple managerial searches this cycle.

Late last month, The Athletic reported Vitello as one of the names linked to the Giants’ job. San Francisco parted ways with Bob Melvin at the end of the season, meaning president of baseball operations Buster Posey would be looking for a new skipper.

Volquest asked Vitello about whether he agreed to become the Giants’ manager and said he had not. In a text to The Athletic, Vitello said, “There is nothing to confirm.”

In addition to the Giants’ job, Vitello was also linked to the Atlanta Braves’ opening. They opted not to bring Brian Snitker back after a rocky 2025 season.

Vitello would not be the first college baseball coach to make it to the major leagues. Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy previously coached at Notre Dame and Arizona State before working for the San Diego Padres. Murphy also served as Craig Counsell’s bench coach before taking over as manager when Counsell left for the Chicago Cubs.

However, Vitello would make a near-unprecedented move from a sitting college baseball coach job straight into a major-league manager role. While Dick Howser went straight from Florida State in 1979 to the New York Yankees as manager in 1980, he was previously the Yankees’ bench coach and served as interim manager in 1978.

Vitello took over at Tennessee in 2018, marking his first college head coaching job. He previously worked as an assistant at his alma mater, Missouri, as well as TCU and Arkansas before arriving on Rocky Top.

Since Tony Vitello’s hire, the Volunteers have become an SEC powerhouse. They won their first-ever College World Series in 2024 after making it to Omaha a year earlier. Vitello has a 341-131 overall record with the Vols, including a 125-85 mark in conference play to go with two conference regular season titles and a conference tournament crown.

The Giants went 81-81 this season before moving on from Melvin as manager. He took over in 2024 after two seasons with the division rival San Diego Padres. During his two years in San Francisco, Melvin had a 161-163 record as the Giants finished third and fourth in the NL East during that time.