SF Giants manager Tony Vitello says that talks never took off with future Hall of Famer

As soon as Tony Vitello was hired as the next SF Giants manager, one of the narratives then shifted to whether they would add future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer. Vitello recently shared that talks with Scherzer never crossed the line out of mutual respect.

SF Giants manager Tony Vitello says that talks never took off with future Hall of Famer

Last week, Scherzer returned to the Toronto Blue Jays on a one-year, $3 million deal. This includes up to $10 million in performance incentives.

This will be Scherzer's 19th major league season. His most notable run came with the Detroit Tigers and Washington Nationals earlier in his career. However, Scherzer spent the 2025 season with the Blue Jays and nearly lifted them to a World Series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

In 2025, the 42-year-old pitcher tallied a 5.19 ERA in 17 outings with Toronto. He also yieldied just one earned run in 4.1 frames in Game 7 of the World Series.

Scherzer became a free agent at the end of the year, and it felt like the Giants were a match following the addition of Tony Vitello. San Francisco had a need in the rotation, and Vitello has strong ties with the veteran hurler. He served as an assistant coach and helped recruit Scherzer to the University of Missouri. Scherzer was drafted in the first round of the 2006 draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks shortly thereafter.

The Giants went in a different direction by adding Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle to round out the rotation. They joined Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, and Landen Roupp in that unit. These signings also seemingly shut the door on a potential Scherzer signing.

Vitello joined the Foul Territory podcast recently and was asked about whether he recruited Scherzer to join San Francisco. Vitello indicated that talks "never crossed that line" with the right-handed pitcher. He also recognized that Scherzer has built strong ties with the Blue Jays organization and that he had a preference to remain on the East Coast.

This was a popular topic in the offseason, but it never made much sense. The Giants needed more upside than Scherzer could offer at this stage of his career, but the Giants did not necessarily add high-upside starters either.