Here's what to know about him

After the Giants lured Tony Vitello away from the Tennessee Volunteers, the college team he has taken to new heights, the new manager is poised to rule in San Francisco, too.

Giants reliever Erik Miller describes the Vitellos as “St. Louis royalty,” so perhaps it’s apt that Tony Vitello, San Francisco’s new manager, is known within the family as “the Prince.”

Vitello, 47, is the youngest of Greg and Kathy Vitello’s four children, and he’s the only boy. He was equal parts spoiled and barely tolerated, a much-loved pain in the rear for sisters Christine, Kara and Katie.

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“It was always, ‘Tony gets this,’ and ‘Tony gets that,’” Greg Vitello said. “‘How come you didn’t discipline him, but you disciplined us? ’ Tony was the first one to get a car, there was always a lot of competition, and he was a bit of a s— disturber. He managed to get his sisters in trouble all the time, and he’d just kind of sneak away. That was part of his personality. The bottom line is: He doesn’t take himself too seriously.”

Vitello is known for his sense of humor, honed at a young age by tweaking his sisters. When he was on the coaching staff at Missouri, his off-the-cuff postseason “awards” were eased out.

“At the end of every fall, we have a banquet, and we would give out tongue-in-cheek awards and Tony was in charge of that,” Missouri head coach Tim Jamieson said. “The whole thing would be like a comedy session. One year, as an example, we had a couple of players who had huge calves, and Tony had them get up in front of the team and we had a ‘calf-off,’ voting for the player with the best calves.

“We had to stop them, because they were getting ready to cross the line. It was like a kangaroo court taken to another level.”

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Vitello has become, as an adult, one of the most effective head coaches in the history of college baseball, turning around Tennessee’s program in remarkable fashion. He managed to do so without losing any of his fun-loving personality, as a quick check of TikTok will demonstrate. There he is, sliding into a team photo shoot after a win at the College World Series. In another much-viewed clip, he’s knocking over the stools at the top of the dugout railing as his team failed to score, declaring, “No scoring, no sitting.”

He even popped on video during Tennessee football games — two weeks in a row, his hijinks on the sideline went viral, first catching an errant pass and sprinting away with the ball, and the next game getting into a three-point stance and charging Tennessee’s linebackers coach before the game.

“He’s absolutely hilarious,” said Minnesota Twins bench coach Jayce Tingler, who played at Missouri with Vitello. “And he does it all with a straight face.”

There’s fun, and there’s game: Vitello won three National Coach of the Year awards with Tennessee, getting the team to the College World Series in 2021, 2023 and 2024. In 2024, he led the Vols to their first-ever championship.

His coaching acumen is in no way a surprise. Greg Vitello is in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame for his 46-year career heading up multiple sports at De Smet Jesuit High School in St. Louis, including baseball and soccer.

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“A legend,” said Miller, who was a sophomore on the De Smet team during Greg Vitello’s final season at the school. “In St. Louis, that name has a lot of weight to it. You learn to play the game the right way — good, proper baseball, just a great, influential foundation for molding young players. I’m sure that’s where Tony got his baseball knowledge and had a big impact on him.”

“Tony looks up to his dad very much,” Tingler said. “That’s a big part of Tony’s story.”

Former Giants third baseman Bill Mueller also played for Vitello at De Smet and remained so close to the family, he lived with them for three years while coaching with the Cardinals from 2014-18. He’s in no way surprised at Buster Posey’s choice to run the team.

“Tony’s such a determined individual that if he sets his mind to something or is intrigued by something, the sky’s the limit,” Mueller said. “It’s not much of a surprise, because of how talented he is as an individual, how he handles situations and speaks to people.

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“It’s a people-business and he’s a people person, he’s savvy with the media and player situations. The front office didn’t do this on a whim, there’s a lot of conversations with a lot of different people. They’ve done the due diligence to know Tony’s going to be able to step in here and impact the organization. Once you have a conversation with Tony, it’s pretty easy to see why Buster would be excited.”

Like many of the best coaches, Tony Vitello wasn’t the best player on any of his teams, well, ever, including at Missouri, where he was a walk-on in 2000-02. A middle infielder, he mostly played shortstop when the team’s regular shortstop was used as the closer, hitting .229 with no homers in 70 at-bats over three years, but his late-innings defense was valued.

“He was on the field a lot because of how he played the game and his intelligence,” Jamieson said, adding delicately, “From a skill standpoint, he was somebody that you look for more talent — but he worked his way onto the field just because of his character. But he would probably tell you he should have played more than I played him.”

Limited at-bats failed to tamp down the enthusiasm.

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“When Tony wasn’t playing, he was the first guy off the bench to warm up outfielders in between innings,” Greg Vitello said. “Everybody on the team knew to get out of his way, because he was going to sprint out to right field. That was his approach to the game.”

Those who aren’t the best athletes on the team often listen to instruction even more intently, trying to pick up any extra bit of information to improve. Vitello used his time on the bench wisely. Much as he had studied his dad’s methods, he watched everything Jamieson did, asking questions and taking notes. He did the same with opposing coaches, particularly standouts like Texas’ Augie Garrido.

His father always figured that Tony would follow him into coaching, and the transition was immediate. After playing for Jamieson, Tony went onto Jamieson’s staff as a student assistant, and then the pitching coach job opened up.

Pitching coach? Sure thing. Vitello, not a pitcher, embraced the opportunity wholeheartedly.

“I always wanted to hire good people, good coaches. I didn’t really care what they coach,” Jamieson said. “And by the end of that first year, he was off and running. His relationship skills and his energy would make Tony successful at anything.”

Among the pitchers Vitello coached were Max Scherzer, the future Hall of Famer, and All-Stars Aaron Crow and Kyle Gibson. Vitello’s recruiting successes at Missouri included Scherzer, Crow and Ian Kinsler; while a coach at Arkansas, Andrew Benintendi; at TCU, Brandon Finnegan. He helped develop 10 first-round picks while at Tennessee, including four this past June, one of them the Giants’ first pick, shortstop Gavin Kilen. Vols alum Drew Gilbert, now a Giants outfielder, was Houston’s first-round pick in 2022.

“Since I’ve been with the Twins, we’ve had several players come from Tennessee, and everybody that played for him absolutely loves this guy,” Tingler said. “One of our scouting directors was doing the pre-draft talks down at the combine, and he came back and said the same thing, there’s just a ton of positive feedback from all the guys who play for him.”

Vols fans loved him every bit as much, packing the stands for the team’s scrimmage Tuesday, chatting “please don’t go, please don’t go.”

“The people in Knoxville were so good to us,” said Greg Vitello, who was a regular at games. “The university was so good to us. We just enjoyed everything that went on there. I’m sure that there’s a lot of people that you know wanted him to play out his entire career there, but I think nowadays, the way college athletics is put together, with the NIL and the portal and recruiting, I don’t think there’s a coach in America that would say he loves it, it’s just a hard, grueling job.

“When you step back and you look at what you’ve accomplished, you go, ‘Well, can I take another step?’ And I think that was Tony. He wants to take another step. He wants another challenge.”

Vitello moves on to a different test altogether, signing a three-year deal worth $3.5 million per season (with an option for a fourth year) on Tuesday and becoming the first man since George Huff in 1907 to become a MLB manager to arrive from college baseball’s ranks; Huff went 2-6 with the Boston Americans (later to become the Red Sox).

“He’ll adjust, he’ll adapt, and he’ll do it while keeping his core principles and beliefs,” Tingler said. “It’s just going to be a matter of understanding how big of a scale it is.”

His family are finding the whole thing “surreal,” Greg Vitello said, but they have no doubts that Tony will do what he always does: succeed, and with a smile and a wink as he does so.

“If you can coach, you can coach at any level,” Greg Vitello said, “and everything else will fall into place.”

“When people ask me what makes him so good, there are certain skills, certain boxes that coaches have to check, and he checks every one of them,” Jamieson said. “There’s sincerity, there’s self-deprecation, there’s a high, high level of intelligence. And the motor is really running. There’s nothing about Tony that’s not authentic. He’s for real.”

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