Tony Vitello is leaving Tennessee baseball to become the new manager of the San Francisco Giants.
The move officially comes four days after a report from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal that Vitello was nearing a deal with San Fransisco. A waiting game ensued with Vitello in Knoxville and at Tennessee’s practices on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday before officially agreeing to the deal with San Fransisco.
Vitello leaves Tennessee amidst fall practice and ahead of his ninth season as head coach. The 47-year old head coach arrived in Knoxville in 2017 and completely rejuvenated a Volunteer program that had wandered in the wilderness for the previous 13 years.
Tennessee returned to the NCAA Tournament in his second year as head coach and to the College World Series in his fourth year as head coach. But Vitello didn’t just turn Tennessee into a relevant program but one of the sport’s very best.
In Vitello’s eight seasons as head coach, Tennessee won two SEC Regular-Season and SEC Tournament championships, made the super regionals five times, made the College World Series three times and won the 2024 National Championship— the first in program history. Vitello ends his stint at Tennessee with a 341-131 record.
The Vols have made it to the super regionals each of the last five years. No other program has made it to the super regionals more than three times in that stretch. LSU has won two of the last three national championships and is the only college program that’s been better in recent years.
Tennessee Director of Athletics Danny White has not named a new head coach in the immediate aftermath. Associate head coach Josh Elander has been an assistant at Tennessee throughout Vitello’s tenure, helping build the Vols into one of the nation’s top programs. He is a strong in-house choice to take the reigns.
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A 34-year old, Elander has been in charge of Tennessee’s offense and one of the nation’s best recruiters. He’s helped the Vols consistently put together top five recruiting classes nationally and has been a candidate for a number of head coaching jobs in recent years.
White could also opt to name veteran pitching coach Frank Anderson as a one year interim before having a nation wide search next offseason.
Vitello had been a hot commodity in college baseball coaching searches for a number of years but never left what he was building in Knoxville for a conference rival. But in the end, professional baseball was able to lure Vitello away from his perch atop the Tennessee program.
It’s an almost unprecedented occurrence for a MLB program to hire a college baseball head coach. And the only other time it has happened, the coach had MLB experience. Vitello neither played professional baseball or worked in professional baseball— spending his entire career in college baseball.
San Fransisco General Manager Buster Posey is looking outside the box for his newest hire. In the Giants organization, Vitello reunites with former Tennessee players Drew Gilbert and Blade Tidwell.
Vitello leaves a talented roster in Knoxville ahead of the 2025 season though his departure begins a 30-day window where Tennessee players can enter the transfer portal and join other programs. However, only grad transfers will be eligible to play next season. Anyone who has not already graduated will not be eligible to play for anyone but Tennessee next season.
It will be fascinating to see which Tennessee staffers and assistants follow Vitello and which stay in Knoxville in the days to come. Strength and conditioning coach Quentin Eberhardt is particularly close with Vitello and is a strong candidate to leave.
One Response
Wow! I feel sorry for the coach. California, and San Francisco in particular, are terrible places to live. To leave Knoxville for San Francisco doesn’t make sense. I hope he has success there, but I think he’ll regret it…and maybe later he’ll come back to Tennessee.