How Tony Vitello emerged as the right choice for Buster Posey, Giants

SAN FRANCISCO — Icon Racing has five partners, and if you go to their website, the first thing that will catch your eye is photos of former MLB outfielder Jayson Werth. With his long flowing hair, Werth was impossible to miss at this year’s Kentucky Derby, when he showed up to watch Flying Mohawk, a horse he co-owns. But if you scroll down the page, you come to the smiling faces of two other men who have gotten the horse racing bug after a lifetime spent around baseball. Their connection was helpful in setting the Giants down the path that led to them introducing Tony Vitello on Thursday morning as the franchise’s 40th manager. Icon’s ownership includes Jeff Berry — a longtime big league agent who now is a trusted advisor to one of his former clients, Buster Posey — and Shawn Kelley, a former big league reliever who just happens to be one of Vitello’s closest friends. Shortly after the Giants season ended, Berry called Kelley. “Let’s set something up,” he said.What followed was a courtship that led to Thursday, when Vitello put on a No. 23 Giants jersey and became the first man in modern baseball history to jump straight from a college dugout to a major league one with no professional experience. Berry and Kelley were in attendance, watching as Posey broke down all of the reasons why Vitello was the right fit, and Vitello answered multiple questions about his lack of experience.Kelley nodded as he soaked it all in. Vitello gave off the exact same impression that he did five years ago, when Max Scherzer, another one of Vitello’s close friends, introduced the two Tennessee residents. “Max introduced us and I just remember thinking, ‘Man, this guy gets it,'” Kelley said Thursday. “He’s real, he’s smart, he’s with it.”Posey added a few more descriptions Thursday. In explaining the unique move, he mentioned Vitello’s “vision,” “conciseness” and natural leadership skills. The Giants’ president of baseball operations said the same message came back over and over again in his phone calls with people who know Vitello. “The response was this guy is a winner,” Posey said. “He has a vision to be great, and not just for himself. That’s going to rub off on those around him. There’s an expectation that he’ll get the best from everybody he comes in contact with.”Posey was all smiles Thursday, cracking several jokes during a lengthy press conference that was attended by just about everyone who works in the front office or on the business side for the Giants. He believes strongly that he found his guy, and he said Thursday that he’s hopeful this is a long relationship. He’s also hopeful it’s a partnership that finally will end the string of mediocre seasons at Oracle Park.The latest one, a disappointing 81-81 campaign that included yet another midsummer collapse and a historic losing stretch at home, cost Bob Melvin his job. The Giants made the announcement on the first morning of the offseason, but Posey’s mind was said to be made up weeks before that. The stretch of 15 losses in 16 home games set the wheels in motion for a change, even though Posey had already picked up Melvin’s option for 2026. Even sneaking into the playoffs as much of the NL field collapsed in September might not have been enough to prevent widespread changes. Posey felt he needed a fresh voice for the clubhouse, and as conversations started internally, general manager Zack Minasian felt he had the right option. Minasian, a longtime scout who has watched plenty of Vitello’s players over the years, was the first to take Vitello’s name to the man in charge. “I think the first (key) is just the mindset of, would a team consider somebody running a college program to be their manager,” Minasian said. “I’ve sat in interviews with managers for years, and it always feels like the question has been brought up. That’s something I’ve thought about for a long time.“There were some rumors (in 2024) that teams were wanting and trying to talk to (Vitello), and I thought about it for us just as we started to get to work on building the list. It was a name that I thought would be interesting to talk to Buster about individually, as opposed to just sending over ‘here are the 30 names we have.’ I mentioned to him that I think Tony would be really interesting to talk to. I don’t think it took him long to respond with, ‘Yeah, I think he would be.'”Knoxville seems like a random starting point when talking about a search for a manager in San Francisco, but Tennessee is actually an athletic department Posey knows well. His sister is married to one of the school’s football coaches and lives in Knoxville, and the Giants have gotten to know the program while adding several Tennessee players to their organization, including Drew Gilbert and 2025 first-rounder Gavin Kilen.With Posey on board, the front office started the intensive process of learning more about Vitello. They talked to coaches in other sports who had crossed paths with him and agents who represented some of Vitello’s former players. Berry, Kelley, Vitello and his agent, Jimmy Sexton, discussed the possibility on the phone and then during a meeting. One of the calls from a Giants official to a person at Tennessee brought about a particularly strong endorsement. The person on the other end joked that they wished they could say something negative just to keep the Giants from poaching Vitello, but they couldn’t.“He’s a rockstar,” the Giants were told.Vitello, it turns out, also was busier than anyone else on the short list. Posey at times had trouble getting Vitello on the phone because of all that he was still doing at Tennessee, where fall practices had started. And in his free time, Vitello was doing his own research. Vitello talked to both Scherzer and Kelley about life in the big leagues, asking about the way organizations operate, the travel, and anything and everything that fans and the media don’t see. They told him that on one level, this job might actually be less stressful. Vitello will help Posey in chasing free agents, but he won’t have to worry about getting a call from a recruit or his parents on Christmas.They also delivered another message. Kelley’s time in the big leagues just about entirely coincided with Posey’s career. Scherzer faced him more than a decade ago in the World Series and again in 2021, when they met in what ended up being Posey’s final postseason series. “I was like, ‘You may get other opportunities, but I don’t know if you’ll have a boss like Buster Posey,'” Kelley said Thursday. “He’s going to do what he has to do to win because he wants to win — he’s all-in. That was one of the questions Tony asked me and Max, and we both were like, ‘If I were going to do it, I’d probably work for that man right there.'”The Giants ultimately kept their search relatively small. They talked to about a half-dozen candidates, with former big leaguer Kurt Suzuki getting an early interview, along with Kansas City Royals coach Vance Wilson, former Baltimore Orioles manager Brandon Hyde and former Giant Nick Hundley. Many considered the job Hundley’s to lose initially, but he pulled out of the running.Vitello became a clear frontrunner, and on a Saturday morning earlier this month, word leaked that the job would be his. There was just one problem. “I was walking the Embarcadero with my wife and baby, and it was out there that we had made an offer,” Minasian said. “I kind of laughed, because we hadn’t sent anything.”Vitello said that Saturday “was chaos,” but the deal wasn’t across the finish line until a conversation with Posey the following Monday, after he watched Game 7 of the ALCS. The new Giants manager was coaching his players at Tennessee until the very last second, with fans showing up at their scrimmages to try to urge him to stay. He said he left most of the negotiating to Sexton, who has had a busy month. “He’s probably on full-time Lane Kiffin duty right now,” Vitello said, smiling. There is a lot about this hire that is new, including the fact that Giants officials had to discuss a buyout of Vitello’s contract at Tennessee, which had been extended through the end of the decade. That amounts to &dollar;3 million, and when everything is added together, the Giants are making a significant commitment in 2026.Vitello got a three-year deal that includes a fourth-year option that will vest if the Giants make the postseason in 2028, per sources. When you add in the &dollar;4 million they owe Melvin and the Tennessee buyout to his &dollar;3.5 million salary, the Giants will be paying &dollar;10.5 million for their managerial spot in 2026, well above — for a year, at least — Craig Counsell’s record AAV of &dollar;8 million per year. All the Giants had to do to feel good about the investment, though, was to watch Vitello’s final scrimmage at Tennessee. Their ballpark is being rebuilt because he rebuilt the program, and the goal is for this new partnership in San Francisco — the 47-year-old Vitello and 38-year-old Posey — to lead the Giants back to the postseason. Vitello might not have any big league experience, but as he starts his second year in charge, Posey finds himself surrounded by men who do. In addition to Minasian, longtime assistant GM Jeremy Shelley, Berry and former Giants GM Bobby Evans, he has leaned on Ron Wotus and Dusty Baker, both of whom helped in vetting Vitello. One day, Vitello let Kelley know that he had gotten a call from Baker.“I’m pretty sure if you want that manager job, it’s going to go through Dusty at some point,” responded Kelley, who played for Baker in Washington. In the end, an entire organization got on board, and as everyone waited for Vitello to arrive on Thursday, team employees raved about their early interactions with the new manager, who has shown his trademark energy over the past week. Vitello and Kelley flew to Toronto for Game 1 of the World Series and Vitello watched his friend Scherzer pitch in Game 3 at Dodger Stadium on Monday. And yes, he stayed all 18 innings.After a couple of days of meetings at Oracle Park, Vitello sat down between Posey and Minasian on Thursday and put on a Giants jersey and hat after Posey joked that it might mess his hair up. It was the start of a new era at Oracle Park, and the beginning of the next journey for a man who is ready for a new challenge.“What a challenge is is something that you find out what you can and can’t do,” Vitello said. “That’s something that we preach to our players all the time at Tennessee, so who am I to preach that, but to not do it?“Now, when you head into a challenge, you want a level of confidence. There are so many unknowns (and) I can’t tell you what that level is for me, but (with) the level of the people surrounding me here — whether it’s the roster, which is pretty good, or the other people in the organization, and in particular, the guy sitting to the right of me — the confidence is through the roof.”Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

How Tony Vitello emerged as the right choice for Buster Posey, Giants

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