Tony Vitello isn’t any stranger to Giants’ franchise lore.
Vitello was a nine-year-old sitting within the right-field seats at Busch Stadium when Will Clark incited a benches-clearing brawl after sliding onerous into St. Louis Cardinals second baseman José Oquendo. He remembers watching Kevin Mitchell’s inconceivable barehanded seize then attempting to recreate it himself. A long time later, Vitello sat behind house plate for Sport 7 of the 2014 World Collection and witnessed Madison Bumgarner pitch 5 innings of aid to ship the Giants’ third World Collection in 5 years.
The 47-year-old Vitello rattled off a laundry checklist of names throughout final Thursday’s introductory press convention, two of them being future Corridor of Famers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker. Regardless of possessing no prior skilled expertise, Vitello will tackle the duty of creating an unprecedented leap from school to the professionals and be a part of the ranks of these icons.
Vitello is not accountable for recruiting gamers like he was at Tennessee — that’s president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s area. However within the coming weeks, he will likely be accountable for assembling his teaching workers, a unit that may assist cowl Vitello’s blind spots as he navigates new obstacles on the major-league stage.
“My greatest factor is for everyone to be on the identical web page,” Vitello stated. “Pulling on the identical rope is a cliché for a purpose. We talked about how lengthy the season is, so it’s necessary to have a bunch of men which can be prepared to be there by thick and skinny. It actually is a wedding for the course of the season.
“For me, it doesn’t should be the brightest, one of the best, probably the most skilled or one of the best résume. It must be the man that’s going to have your again.”
Posey stated in early October after firing Bob Melvin that he needed to provide his new supervisor company in creating a training workers. Whereas there will likely be new faces becoming a member of the group, Vitello received’t be ranging from scratch. Vitello stated on Thursday there had already been conversations about protecting members of final 12 months’s teaching workers; Posey added that he expects holdovers from the earlier teaching workers.
Amongst these returning may very well be pitching coach J.P. Martinez and assistant hitting coach Oscar Bernard, who’re each beneath contract for subsequent season. Along with offering continuity, Martinez and Bernard are additionally bilingual. Vitello has little, if any, expertise teaching gamers from Latin America, so having Spanish-speaking coaches on the pitching and hitting facet could be invaluable.
“Who makes up the workers is actually key. I feel additionally, simply making an effort — which entails work ethic — to fulfill that problem particularly head on,” Vitello stated of teaching gamers from Latin America. “No matter folks’s backgrounds, whenever you’re in a piece atmosphere, it is advisable to get to know who individuals are and it is advisable to construct relationships. You additionally wish to construct a belief stage there that they’re prepared to return to you with sure issues.”
Together with Martinez and Bernard, the checklist of returners might embrace first-base coach Mark Hallberg, bullpen coach Garvin Alston, catching coach Alex Burg and major-league high quality management coach Taira Uematsu.
For all of the continuity, there may also be notable adjustments.
Ryan Christianson and Matt Williams is not going to return subsequent season after serving as Melvin’s bench coach and third-base coach, respectively. It additionally stays to be seen whether or not Pat Burrell will return for a 3rd 12 months as hitting coach after the Giants had been a below-average offense in back-to-back seasons.
So far as additions, one potential candidate is Antoan Richardson, who served because the Giants’ first-base coach beneath former supervisor Gabe Kapler. Richardson is not going to return to the Mets in 2026 following two seasons with the staff, and a reunion in San Francisco might assist revitalize the Giants’ stagnant run recreation.
The Giants have been the least aggressive stealing staff since Main League Baseball applied rule adjustments that incentivized stealing. Since 2023, San Francisco ranks final within the majors in steals (193) and makes an attempt (255). The Giants additionally hasn’t had a participant steal not less than 30 bases in a single season since Dave Roberts did so in 2007.
Richardson will help on this division. The Mets had the lowest common dash pace within the majors final season however nonetheless completed fifth within the majors in steals (147). Juan Soto, particularly, stole a career-high 38 bases (his earlier career-high was 12) regardless of rating within the thirteenth percentile in dash pace.
“Antoan did an unbelievable job,” Soto stated. “He’s been serving to me since day one. I give him all of the credit score.”
“We’re going by names, and he’s clearly a reputation I’m aware of and was in a position to work with him,” Posey stated.
Logan Webb is aware of first-hand how Richardson can influence a ballgame. Webb solely allowed 9 steals this season en path to profitable his first Gold Glove Award, however three of these steals had been Webb’s outing in opposition to the Mets in late July. When the Giants flew to New York the next week, Webb caught up with Richardson about what he noticed.
“He’s a extremely good baserunning coach,” Webb stated.
One other chance for Vitello’s teaching workers is Jayce Tingler, who performed alongside Vitello at Missouri.
Tingler’s expertise within the majors could be invaluable for Vitello given his lack {of professional} expertise. Together with managing the San Diego Padres in 2020 and ‘21, Tingler spent 4 seasons as a coach for the Texas Rangers (‘15, ‘16, ‘18, ‘19) and has spent the final three seasons because the Minnesota Twins’ bench coach beneath recently-fired supervisor Rocco Baldelli. Tingler additionally speaks Spanish and has hung out in each the Dominican Summer time League and Dominican Winter League.
With Derek Shelton taking up because the Twins’ supervisor following Baldelli’s firing, Tingler might very properly entertain a chance to hitch his former teammate in San Francisco as a bench coach.
It’s additionally value questioning whether or not Vitello will look again to the faculty recreation to fill out his teaching workers. Whereas Vitello is making an unprecedented transfer, there are current examples of collegiate assistant coaches leaping from the novice recreation to the professionals.
Detroit Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter was the pitching coach at Ball State (2016) and Michigan (2017-20) earlier than becoming a member of the Detroit Tigers in ‘21. There’s additionally Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson, who was the pitching coach at Vanderbilt for a decade earlier than becoming a member of the skilled ranks.
There’s no scarcity of challenges that await Vitello in his first season as knowledgeable. His teaching workers will likely be invaluable in serving to him navigating these inevitable bumps within the highway.
