The San Francisco Giants hiring a supervisor like Tony Vitello, whom they’re mentioned to be pursuing, comes with some dangers.
The pinnacle coach on the College of Tennessee since 2018, Vitello has by no means managed, coached and even performed on the skilled degree, majors or minors. He could be the primary supervisor in main league historical past to make such a soar. Vitello having achieved all of these issues — play, coach and handle as knowledgeable — little question would inform him on his first day as Giants supervisor. It isn’t very best Vitello hasn’t ridden with the boys on the buses over the again roads to bush league video games.
However it’s not the whole lot, and Giants basic supervisor Buster Posey is aware of it.
Here is what Vitello has achieved: develop main league ballplayers. That is a high quality main league groups need in a supervisor nowadays, and it is what they need to need. Improvement was once seen as a website largely for the minor leagues, however it’s short-sighted to imagine that growing gamers stops as soon as they attain the majors. Loads of instances, it does. However it should not need to.
Vitello has excelled in growth, along with his Tennessee bio stating: “Throughout a full-time, Division I teaching profession spanning 22 years, Vitello has signed and developed 16 first-round MLB Draft picks and a handful of gamers who’ve gone on to play in Main League Baseball.” The names from Tennessee embrace Garrett Crochet, Ben Joyce, Jordan Beck, Chase Hollander and Christian Moore. MLB groups have drafted 41 gamers from Tennessee since 2021, greater than another spot.
Different notable MLB ballplayers Vitello has recruited and coached, as an assistant at Arkansas and Missouri, embrace Brandon Finnegan, Andrew Benintendi, Ian Kinsler and Max Scherzer. Scherzer, a three-time Cy Younger winner and possible Corridor of Famer as soon as he retires, mentioned in a 2022 interview with SNY that Vitello helped him use his personal well-known depth to a bonus.
“Tony introduced out an much more aggressive facet in me,” Scherzer says. “Similar for that group of pitchers there on the time. Their depth rubbed off on me. They challenged me to be higher, to be extra aggressive. Missouri was actually floor zero for me turning into an enormous league pitcher, rising into greater than only a thrower.”
He may not have been on the skilled degree but, however Vitello has an in depth background of figuring out, evaluating and growing big-league expertise. He simply did not occur to be on the skilled degree (but) whereas teaching and managing these gamers. And it is not like Vitello simply used the job at Tennessee to go the gamers forward to the subsequent degree. He is additionally gotten outcomes as a supervisor, profitable the NCAA championship in 2024, making three Males’s Faculty World Sequence since 2021, and 6 regionals general. Tennessee has change into a nationwide energy, undertaking issues it by no means had achieved earlier than in baseball.
Perhaps in one other period, an individual with Vitello’s talent set would have been on an government monitor, however Posey does not want a GM — that is what he does. Regardless of, if Vitello can suppose like a GM and nonetheless operate as a supervisor, the Giants may get extra from the dugout than most groups.
Vitello is more likely to discover pockets of resistance at first, past media varieties and followers unsure about his bona fides as a skipper. On the subsequent degree, Vitello additionally will run right into a ballplayer or two unimpressed that the supervisor wasn’t ok to play professionally. It would even bug certainly one of his gamers that Vitello himself did not attain the majors as a participant. That is their drawback. Not having performed within the majors, way back, proved to be no large deal in itself.
Going again to the Nineteen Thirties and ’40s, Joe McCarthy received seven World Sequence managing the New York Yankees. He by no means made it previous the minor leagues as a participant. Earl Weaver did not play within the majors and received 4 pennants and a World Sequence with the Baltimore Orioles. Jim Leyland, Jack McKeon, Joe Maddon, Brian Snitker — all of them received World Sequence rings as managers with out having performed within the majors, too. A number of of those guys are within the Corridor of Fame.
There are many causes to suppose that, say, Albert Pujols could be a very good supervisor within the majors. He’s mentioned to be a candidate at a number of locations, from the Angels to the Orioles. It is true that Pujols has been making ready to handle the Dominican Republic crew for the World Baseball Traditional, and he is achieved just a little right here and there as a particular assistant and part-time coach on the main league degree. However envisioning Pujols as a big-league supervisor requires some religion, too. Vitello has proved he can do loads that Pujols has but to attempt. That does not disqualify both of them.
As for evaluating managers as gamers, no person cares about how a supervisor’s enjoying profession stacks up so long as they are a good supervisor, or so long as they simply occur to win. Take a look at the managers of the latest World Sequence winners and their very own enjoying careers. Dave Roberts with the Dodgers: strong participant within the majors, principally a fourth outfielder. Bruce Bochy with the Rangers: a backup catcher. Dusty Baker with the Astros: a two-time All-Star. Snitker with the Braves: performed six video games at Triple-A.
All types can handle a significant league crew. Historical past has been proving it since Frank Selee (look him up). Posey and the Giants seem on the verge of discovering an intriguing supervisor by trying exterior of the field. However not that exterior.
