Why Tony Vitello wanted to bring his Tennessee strength coach with him to Giants

SCOTTSDALE — When Tony Vitello finally agreed to take the Giants job, he knew he wanted Quentin Eberhardt to come with him from Tennessee. He also knew he had to sit back and let others come to the realization that one of his close friends would be a strong addition.Eberhardt was Vitello’s director of baseball sports performance at Tennessee, leading the way for a program that was known for being ahead of the curve in terms of strength and conditioning. A few weeks after Vitello departed, he joined a Zoom call with Eberhardt, Buster Posey, Zack Minasian, Jeremy Shelley and Dave Groeschner.He was mostly silent, watching as the whole group came together. The Giants were sold. Eberhardt was, too.“It was kind of a no-brainer, just talking with them and hearing what the vision was and the possibilities,” Eberhardt said recently. “The culture that they wanted to keep restoring was very intriguing. The conversation gave me chills, to be honest.”Eberhardt’s official title in San Francisco is director of performance. He is part of a large group underneath Groeschner, the longtime trainer who recently was promoted to vice president of medical and performance. For Vitello, though, Eberhardt is much more than just a key voice on the strength and conditioning side. He’s a trusted friend who sat with him on the nights before he took the Giants job, offering advice and encouragement, but also sometimes just hanging out silently as they watched TV. He’s a crucial confidant as Vitello embarks on a journey that hasn’t been done before. “There’s a level of comfort there,” Vitello said. “But more importantly, it’s someone you can lean on. You have to juggle time away from the field or office time, and he always keeps things light. He keeps things loose, that would probably be the best way to put it, but he’s also somebody you can confide in.”While this is all new to Vitello, Eberhardt has a long history with professional baseball. He was a corner infielder in college who had enough talent to get a couple of tryouts with big league organizations after going undrafted, but when those didn’t pan out, he joined the Houston Astros organization as a strength coach in the Gulf Coast League. After minor league stops with the Atlanta Braves and St. Louis Cardinals, he became the strength and conditioning coordinator for the Miami Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate. He was there for four years before Vitello called. One of Eberhardt’s minor leaguers, Josh Elander, went on to coach for Vitello (and ended up replacing him when he left last October). Elander introduced the two and their first conversation lasted two hours. Before long, they were working together in Knoxville, helping to turn the program around. The gains made in the gym are not often known to the public, but the Volunteers developed a reputation for getting more power on both sides of the ball. Their pitchers had noticeable improvements in velocity, with the three highest strikeout totals in franchise history coming over the last three seasons. On the other side, the Vols went from hitting 33 homers in the season before Eberhardt arrived to having four consecutive years of 100-plus. In 2024, they became the first team in NCAA history to have five players reach 20 homers. “Our guys always got credit at Tennessee,” Vitello said. “People said your guys all look the same in uniform, they all look athletic, they look strong, and I think a lot of that was his ability.”It is, of course, much easier to make huge strides with teenagers, especially when you’re benefiting from your boss being one of the best recruiters in the country. But the Giants are confident that Eberhardt can help their established big leaguers take small steps that could be crucial, and they also were sold on his ability to help get them through a 162-game season.“He’s really good in the weight room with guys, but in his role at Tennessee, he was just as valuable with interpersonal skills and relating to the players and what their goals are,” Vitello said. “I don’t think he’s afraid to challenge guys in a good way.”The veterans have seen that already. Eberhardt joked that with someone as locked-in as Matt Chapman, sometimes you just need to “shut the hell up and watch him lift.” But when the push is needed, Eberhardt will be there. “He’s got great energy,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “He’s always in a good mood and is trying to be there for you and help you however he can. He’s a cool dude to hang out with, and it’s not just about the work. We can have a good time while we’re working. A lot of guys are not like that.”Eberhardt’s methods were honed mostly in the minors and the SEC, but big league life is not completely unfamiliar to him. He briefly left Vitello and Tennessee for the Chicago Cubs in 2022, a move he called the most difficult decision of his life. But he felt that he had unfinished business in Tennessee and returned in time to help the program to a first national championship. The pull from MLB is strong, though, as Vitello would later learn. “If the situation was right,” Eberhardt said, “I wanted to be back in the big leagues.”The Giants proved to be the ideal fit, and not just because Vitello was heading to San Francisco. Eberhardt missed Tennessee during his time away in part because he missed the culture they had built, and he got the sense from Posey and the rest of the front office that they were trying to build something similar. Vitello is a huge part of that. But he felt his longtime strength coach and friend could be part of the solution, and so far, it has all felt right. Eberhardt joined a big staff with a well-established reputation for keeping players healthy, and there is no pull from the college game this time around. “They already have a good working culture with strength and conditioning and it’s just about adding and picking each other’s brains about what we see, what we like, what’s worked in the past and what maybe hasn’t worked as well, and what we could improve on,” he said. “I hope they would say the same, but it’s been an easy, seamless fit for me. A lot of my priorities are theirs, too. “We’re obviously optimizing health and performance, but at the same time, I always say I’m greedy. I want guys to be healthy and also work on their goals and their asymmetries and build. They already do that here and we’re all like-minded individuals. It’s been really easy to transition.”Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

Why Tony Vitello wanted to bring his Tennessee strength coach with him to Giants

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