The Athletic's story on Buster Posey confirms what SF Giants fans knew all along about Tony Vitello

The Athletic released a long article about SF Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey recently. Nothing in it will be all that new or surprising to Giants fans as it amounts to a general recounting of all the things that have gone wrong for Posey and San Francisco this season, but one nugget regarding manager Tony Vitello stood out not so much because it’s a shock but because it confirms something Giants fans already suspected.

The author Brittany Ghiroli writes of Vitello: “The rookie manager told players to treat him as a teammate, which raised eyebrows.” Watching how this season has played out, that tracks.

Vitello has seemingly wanted to be “one of the guys” and has avoided asserting authority over a group of veteran players who probably looked at a manager who came straight from the college ranks with a slightly skeptical eye.

He’s been very reluctant to publicly criticize any player for any reason, even when he’s been showed up by both Rafael Devers and Landen Roupp. Maybe that is a smarter strategy than trying to make an example out of guys, but with how this season has gone one can only wonder if Vitello will have to change course.

He doesn’t have to lay down the law and yell at anyone, but he has to understand that the players likely aren’t ever going to think of him as a teammate. Maybe the younger guys will, but the veterans are probably used to a clear line of demarcation between players and coaches.

Tony Vitello may fare better in second season with Giants

Perhaps it will simply be a case of him getting more comfortable in year two. He’ll have a better understanding of the job and the players on the team and they in turn will have a better understanding of him. He could have a bit more legitimacy to tell a player if they’re out of line than he did this season.

Of course, this coaching staff hasn’t earned a ton of legitimacy based on the results on the field. The team is on track to have one of the worst seasons in the history of the franchise which is not exactly the best way to earn buy-in.

Winning makes everything easier so that’s the only way to truly get everyone on the same page. Maybe that will come in 2027 depending on how much baseball actually gets played, but if it doesn’t then it will be pretty obvious that the Vitello experiment was flawed from the start.

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