Which Giant Benefits Most From the Hiring of Tony Vitello?

The San Francisco Giants’ offseason got started as early as any in 2025. Shortly after the conclusion of the season, they let go of manager Bob Melvin and began the search for their next one.

While there were a handful of names floated as favorites for the job, they landed on arguably the most unconventional candidate. Tony Vitello decided to leave his job as the head coach at the University of Tennessee to become the first big-league manager to make the jump directly from college to an MLB manager.

While we’ll have to wait and see how he deals with the superstars and veterans of the team, there’s one group who will immediately benefit from the former college skipper grabbing the reigns.

San Francisco has waited years for young talent to come up and cement themselves as everyday —and hopefully above-average — big-league contributors. All of a sudden, they have several names with the potential to do so.

Names like Bryce Eldridge, Heliot Ramos, Drew Gilbert, and a handful of young arms are the first to come to mind. Coming from Tennessee, Vitello has a surplus of experience when it comes to getting the most out of young and inexperienced ballplayers.

Let’s take a look at which Giants will benefit most from the team’s new manager.

Bryce Eldridge

It’s been a long time since the Giants have had a prospect Bryce Eldridge’s caliber. Some would say the last one was Buster Posey, the team’s current president of baseball operations and future Hall of Famer.

However, there’s one major difference between the two: Posey was drafted out of Florida State University while Eldridge decided to skip college and turn professional directly out of high school.

The freshly-turned 21-year-old missed out on the crucial development that takes places at a major college program, such as the University of Alabama — where he was committed.

Since taking the job, Vitello has joked about Eldridge turning him down at Tennessee. Now, Eldridge will get a taste of the development he might have received in college while his new skipper gets a chance at coaching one of the brightest young prospects in baseball.

When asked about Eldridge on the Giants Talk podcast, Vitello didn’t shy away from sharing how good he thinks he can be:

“I think his potential is off the charts…you’re talking about a guy that is in the infant stage of his development and, on top of that, he’s still growing into a body that’s huge. As athletic as he is, it’s a huge frame…For all the Giants fans or maybe just the people upstairs when we’ve talked about him, for all the excitement that is out there, I think it’s for good reason.”

– Giants Manager Tony Vitello

Heliot Ramos

Heliot Ramos broke out as an All-Star in 2024 when he finally got some real run at the major-league level. While it was only 60 games leading up to that Midsummer Classic, he held a 146 wRC+ and slashed .298/.365/.523.

We did see the bat take a slight step back in 2025, but it was still a 106 wRC+ through 157 games.

Unfortunately, on the other side of the ball, we saw a catastrophic fall off. Ramos was a fine defender in left during his breakout year, but he was borderline unplayable out there in 2025.

	Innings	DRS	OAA
2024	426.2	+4	+1
2025	1,332.2	-6	-9

While it was in fewer games, we’ve seen Ramos be an above-average defender in left field over a solid sample. Whether it was technique, mental, or a lack of focus, something obviously changed in 2025.

Enter Tony Vitello. Known to be an excellent communicator and extremely personable, he has the opportunity to bring Ramos back to an All-Star-caliber outfielder.

It could just be that 2024 was a fluke and Ramos simply isn’t a good defender. However, if that’s not the case, Vitello’s presence and pure coaching ability could be key in him providing a similar level of value we got during his All-Star season just a year ago.

Drew Gilbert

It’s no secret that Drew Gilbert and Tony Vitello have a relationship that goes back to their time at Tennessee. At the end of the day, this is how Vitello decided to open his first public announcement after taking the Giants’ job:

“By now, you all know I have officially accepted a position to babysit Drew Gilbert.”

– Giants’Manager Tony Vitello

However, Gilbert still has a team to make and that’s if the Giants don’t bring in a free agent or trade acquisition to be the everyday right fielder.

The former top 100 prospect and first-round pick struggled in his cup of coffee last season. After being dealt to San Francisco at the deadline, he took around 100 plate appearances and slashed just .190/.248/.350.

While he didn’t do much at the plate, he played great defense and brought unmatched energy to the dugout. With Gilbert and Vitello in the same organization again, we may get the most energetic dugout in all of baseball.

More importantly, can Vitello help Gilbert recapture what made him so productive in college and such a highly touted prospect? Time will tell.

Hayden Birdsong

We’ve seen Hayden Birdsong’s stuff mow down lineups with ease, especially when it’s around the strike zone. However, last season, he lost all command and his big-league season ended early.

In a July start against the Braves, he walked four and gave up five earned runs without getting an out in the first inning. The outing was on the heels of a rough stretch of games for Birdsong, and he appeared mentally exhausted. This resulted in him getting optioned and spending the remainder of the season in Triple-A.

Vitello has plenty of experience working with young arms going back to his time as the pitching coach at the University of Missouri and, of course, his time in Knoxville. Birdsong has the highest ceiling out of San Francisco’s young bunch of starters, and Vitello is going to be play a major role in the 24-year-old finding his footing with the Giants.

Honorable Mentions

• Casey Schmitt — Looking to secure his spot as San Francisco’s long-term second baseman.

• Landen Roupp — We’ve seen him have success at the big-league level, can Vitello help him reach another level?

• Carson Whisenhunt – The southpaw is the organization’s highest-ranked pitching prospect and looking to become a mainstay in the Giants’ rotation sooner rather than later.

Final Thoughts

Surely, the development of young talent wasn’t the sole reason Vitello got offered the San Francisco job, but it had to have been a significant one. He’s worked with hundreds, if not thousands of young and underdeveloped athletes during his nearly two and a half decades as a NCAA coach.

With San Francisco looking to find long-term solutions at several positions, this seems like the perfect time to try this historic hire. While the in-game calls and what’s written on the lineup cards will be the most judged decisions, Vitello could be a huge help in the development of these young guys.

Only time will tell if the decision to bring in a college coach with zero professional history as an MLB manager will pay off, but Buster Posey and the rest of the organization are counting on it.