Tennessee football is off this week, giving Vol fans a chance to rest their heart rate after a thrilling overtime win at Mississippi State. But a wrench has been thrown in Tennessee’s open date that’s providing cause for increased heart rate.
It started earlier this week when The Athletic’s San Fransisco Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly listed Tennessee’s Tony Vitello as an “out-of-the-box” candidate for the Giants open manager position after General Manager Buster Posey fired manager Bob Melvin earlier this week.
Then later this week when Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker announced his retirement and transition to a front office role, The Athletic’s David O’Brien mentioned Vitello in an extremely short paragraph as an “outside the box” choice.”
But what does Las Vegas think about the chances Vitello is leading a professional baseball team and not the Vols next season? They don’t believe it’s likely.
BetOnline has odds on who will be the next manager for both teams. The sportsbook has Vitello +1600 to be the Braves next manager. He has the 10th best odds to land the position. There are a number of obvious choices ahead of him like Mark DeRosa and David Ross. But even former Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina has better odds than Vitello to be the new Braves manager.
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Vitello has even worse odds to be the new Giants manager with BetOnline giving him +2000 odds which are the 12th best of any candidate. Nick Hundlay, DeRosa and Ross are the betting favorites to become the Giants next manager.
While the odds are better for Vitello to end up with the Braves, San Fransisco seems like the more likely landing spot. Giants GM Buster Posey is much more of a risk taker who thinks outside the box. Hiring Vitello would be a very risky decision which has not matched the past decisions of Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos. Former Tennessee star Drew Gilbert and starting pitcher Blade Tidwell are on the Giants roster providing another connection there.
Either way, Vitello landing with either job seems extremely unlikely. There’s no precedent of a MLB team hiring a sitting college baseball coach. Pat Murphy is the closest example, having spent 15 years as the Arizona State head coach. But Murphy then spent six years as an assistant coach for the San Diego Padres and then nine years as a Milwaukee Brewers assistant coach before becoming the manager.
If every a college coach would be a popular choice, it’s Tennessee’s Tony Vitello. Vitello has rejuvenated a Tennessee program that had wondered in the wilderness for a decade-plus before his arrival. Now in eight years under Vitello, the Vols have won the SEC Regular-Season and Tournament twice, have made three trips to the College World Series and won the program’s first ever National Championship in 2024.
Vitello was at Tennessee’s intrasquad scrimmage Tuesday, on the road recruiting later in the week and will be in Chattanooga for the Vols’ intrasquad scrimmage Saturday.
