Why Jayce Tingler addition was so crucial for new Giants manager Tony Vitello

SCOTTSDALE — Tony Vitello’s first week of MLB spring training has been filled with references to his time in college, and it makes sense. That is all Vitello has ever known, and when he walked into the clubhouse on Tuesday for the start of Giants camp, he was reminded that it’s easy for those memories to come flooding back. Vitello coached Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell at Tennessee, and he recruited others on the roster, or recalls seeing them at the Area Code Games or facing them in the SEC. Nobody goes back further with Vitello, though, than his bench coach.Just two years younger than Vitello, Jayce Tingler played with him at the University of Missouri two decades ago. The two have been close ever since. Vitello smiled Saturday morning when he recalled a drink they had together at Harpo’s — a bar within walking distance of the university — when Tingler was finishing his college career and Vitello was a young assistant on staff. The team had just lost an NCAA Regional to Mississippi State. “Now that I’m not coaching college kids, I can be honest about this. We wanted one last hurrah with the guys,” Vitello joked. “I remember talking about a coach that I admire and look up to in college baseball, and he said, ‘You could be better than that guy.’ I never forgot that.“It’s kind of one of those things. I know exactly where I was sitting, I know what was going on. Obviously I wasn’t overserved because I remember exactly what he said, and it stuck with me.”Vitello has never forgotten that talk because of what Tingler was trying to instill. It was belief, and that was there last fall when the two had lengthy conversations about Vitello possibly leaving Tennessee for Major League Baseball. Again, Tingler was there to nudge him forward, expressing his belief that it was the right move. There was never a doubt for Vitello that Tingler would join him in San Francisco if he took the job. The same was true for Tingler, who called it “a dream” to always team up again.Tingler, coming off four years as the Minnesota Twins’ bench coach, said Saturday that he was pretty far down the line with a couple of other organizations when things started heating up between the Giants and Vitello.“I kind of had to hit the pause button on some other things,” Tingler said. “To know that ultimately the opportunity or the chance to work with him was available, and then when it was this organization with the history and the team that they have and the resources and the support that they have, the more you started to think about it, it kind of became a no-brainer.”Vitello has a lot of people he can lean on in year one. Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker are in the front office, and Ron Washington is on his coaching staff. At a media event Thursday, he spent 10 minutes chatting with two-time NL Manager of the Year Pat Murphy, himself a former college coach. On Saturday morning, he spent time with longtime Giants bench coach Ron Wotus. But Tingler is fresh off four years on a bench in Minnesota after two as manager in San Diego. He has been invaluable in planning out spring training — something Vitello had never done — and helping him manage his day-to-day responsibilities. That will ramp up during the regular season, when a whole new batch of “firsts” are thrown at Vitello. If Vitello succeeds, it will be in large part because of his bench coach, and Tingler plans to be here for the long haul.He had a .523 winning percentage in two seasons with the Padres, and if the Giants get back to contention, Vitello’s young coaches should benefit just as Gabe Kapler’s did after the 2021 season. Three members of that staff are now big league bench coaches. Vitello noted recently that a lot of people he has brought in are “betting on themselves,” and the next logical step for Tingler would be taking a second crack at managing, but he said that’s far from the front of his mind. He has 14-year-old and 12-year-old boys at home. “I’m being perfectly honest with you, I’m probably one of the few bench coaches in the league that has no desire to manage in the next couple years,” he said. “I can’t tell you that one day my wife and I are empty nesters, and hopefully — if she does her job right, not me — and she gets both of them out of the house and maybe either to work or to college, maybe that’ll come back around.“But right now, I’m excited. I enjoy the bench coach aspect.”Tingler’s prior experience taught him that the manager is often not a coach at all. It’s an all-encompassing job, filled with media requests and work done for an organization’s business and community relations sides. Vitello will be pulled in a million different directions, but Tingler said he’s hoping he can fill all of the blind spots in the dugout as his friend navigates big league life. The relationship started more than twenty years ago in a batting cage at Missouri. Vitello, a walk-on, thought he would be the first one there to hit, but Tingler, who later would be a 10th-round pick for the Toronto Blue Jays, was already taking his hacks. Vitello was pleasantly surprised. He was small at the time, but Tingler was, too.“It kind of immediately boosted my confidence,” Vitello recalls. “‘Maybe I can make this team?’ It turns out he was our best player and our best competitor and became one of my best friends.”Vitello and Tingler would sneak into the ballpark on Thursday nights to get a look at their weekend opponents and soak up knowledge from other coaches. One night, Oklahoma’s coach thought Vitello was a member of the grounds crew and tipped him &dollar;100. “Being friends with Jayce has paid off,” Vitello cracked when telling that story at the Winter Meetings. Vitello was soon on staff himself, and he says Tingler is the most intense player he has ever coached, surpassing even Gilbert. That apparently hasn’t faded at all over the years. On Saturday, Vitello smiled and said Tingler is trying to practice jiu-jitsu on him in the outfield. Their competition goes back to those days throwing BP to each other on campus in Columbia, Missouri. Vitello is now atop the depth chart, but in a way, Tingler won. For years, Vitello had been trying to lure Tingler to college. Tingler always talked about the two being in professional baseball together. Now that it’s finally happened, Tingler said he just wants Vitello to “be himself.” The rest, he believes, will take care of itself. And when there are gaps, a close friend will be there to help out. “If I could get vulnerable for a second, you need coworkers and you’ve got to lean on people, but you also need a friend,” Vitello said. “I’m probably on my phone too much, so it’s not like you can’t text message or talk to people, but I think having somebody who’s lived out about every scenario you can in this game, it’s valuable. On the work side, but also on the personal side.”Download and follow the Giants Talk Podcast

Why Jayce Tingler addition was so crucial for new Giants manager Tony Vitello

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