Tenn. Vols Vitello nearing deal to become SF Giants manager .. Rats !

[ramfandan]

IF the scuttlebutt is true that Giants are 'close to a deal ' and reports that the two sides are 'finalizing details' , one thing came to mind .

Often in sports , the two sides first reach agreement on the general paramaters of the deal .. meaning the No. of years and the salary per year .. including any bonuses for specific benchmarks .. ie making it to divisional series, LCS, WS etc.

The bigger final detail in this situation (as with other colleg/pro coaches ) is the 'buyout ' provision. Vitello must pay U. of Tenn . $3M (equivalent of 1 yr. salary ) to breach his deal and leave for any other job.
So the two sides (Giants /Vitello) have to work out who will pay how much of that .
Would Giants say Hey we are paying a lot more than $3 M per year in our offer to acquire you , we expect you to pay most or all of the $3M to U T ?
Would they say , we will pay $1 M and you pay $2 M ? split it down the middle ? $1.5M for each
Might Vitello's agent be pressing for Giants to pay ALL of the buyout ?
Regardless the 'buyout' could be the final haggling for it does involve a chunk of dollars. Just my guess ..

[ramfandan]

Sometimes the source for these anonymous leaks is the person himself or his agent just to get his name associated with a job and raise his profile.

Or as you said , the interest is real but his agent wants time to see if Tenn .will offer even a 'higher ' contract to retain him.
However, the Vols did make him the highest paid manager with $3M per year. Would Tenn. really want to go higher to retain him ?

Have you ever heard of anybody turning down a managerial job in MLB to coach in college?

What is unique in this case is that it is unprecedented that a MLB team would consider hiring a guy with NO minor league coaching experience.
Take Pat Murphy (Brewers ) He was at Notre Dame and Ariz. St for 15 years. He did have minor league gigs and then Craig Counsell (brewers at the time ) hired Murph (who was his college coach at Notre Dame ) to be his bench coach in Milw.
In Vitello's case, he has NONE of that background . His own dad was a baseball head coach guy .
maybe not a good analogy but Vitello right to pros from head college job is akin to Cincinnati Moeller HS football coach going from HS to be head coach at Notre Dame. Faust came to ND in 1981 ? and was out by 1985

I could see a coaching job of some kind but not a MLB manager job. Perhaps low minors managerial job. I strongly suspect he or his agent were behind this rumor.

With Vitello's signing , it's clear that San Fran was pursuing him and not the other way around. The rumors proved true that Buster Posey (right or wrong down the road ) wanted Vitello and he convinced Tony V. to come to San Fran. Now I am waiting to see what contract $$$ Posey threw at him to get him to San Fran.

[ScotchMIrish]

Sometimes the source for these anonymous leaks is the person himself or his agent just to get his name associated with a job and raise his profile.

Or as you said , the interest is real but his agent wants time to see if Tenn .will offer even a 'higher ' contract to retain him.
However, the Vols did make him the highest paid manager with $3M per year. Would Tenn. really want to go higher to retain him ?

Have you ever heard of anybody turning down a managerial job in MLB to coach in college?

What is unique in this case is that it is unprecedented that a MLB team would consider hiring a guy with NO minor league coaching experience.
Take Pat Murphy (Brewers ) He was at Notre Dame and Ariz. St for 15 years. He did have minor league gigs and then Craig Counsell (brewers at the time ) hired Murph (who was his college coach at Notre Dame ) to be his bench coach in Milw.
In Vitello's case, he has NONE of that background . His own dad was a baseball head coach guy .
maybe not a good analogy but Vitello right to pros from head college job is akin to Cincinnati Moeller HS football coach going from HS to be head coach at Notre Dame. Faust came to ND in 1981 ? and was out by 1985

I could see a coaching job of some kind but not a MLB manager job. Perhaps low minors managerial job. I strongly suspect he or his agent were behind this rumor.

With Vitello's signing , it's clear that San Fran was pursuing him and not the other way around. The rumors proved true that Buster Posey (right or wrong down the road ) wanted Vitello and he convinced Tony V. to come to San Fran. Now I am waiting to see what contract $$$ Posey threw at him to get him to San Fran.

You are right. This will be interesting to follow. He reportedly is taking a pay cut according to multiple sources.

[ramfandan]

Sometimes the source for these anonymous leaks is the person himself or his agent just to get his name associated with a job and raise his profile.

Or as you said , the interest is real but his agent wants time to see if Tenn .will offer even a 'higher ' contract to retain him.
However, the Vols did make him the highest paid manager with $3M per year. Would Tenn. really want to go higher to retain him ?

Have you ever heard of anybody turning down a managerial job in MLB to coach in college?

What is unique in this case is that it is unprecedented that a MLB team would consider hiring a guy with NO minor league coaching experience.
Take Pat Murphy (Brewers ) He was at Notre Dame and Ariz. St for 15 years. He did have minor league gigs and then Craig Counsell (brewers at the time ) hired Murph (who was his college coach at Notre Dame ) to be his bench coach in Milw.
In Vitello's case, he has NONE of that background . His own dad was a baseball head coach guy .
maybe not a good analogy but Vitello right to pros from head college job is akin to Cincinnati Moeller HS football coach going from HS to be head coach at Notre Dame. Faust came to ND in 1981 ? and was out by 1985

I could see a coaching job of some kind but not a MLB manager job. Perhaps low minors managerial job. I strongly suspect he or his agent were behind this rumor.

With Vitello's signing , it's clear that San Fran was pursuing him and not the other way around. The rumors proved true that Buster Posey (right or wrong down the road ) wanted Vitello and he convinced Tony V. to come to San Fran. Now I am waiting to see what contract $$$ Posey threw at him to get him to San Fran.

You are right. This will be interesting to follow. He reportedly is taking a pay cut according to multiple sources.

Wanna see final contract details later. The sources saying he is taking a pay cut cite his current pay at $3.3 M , though his salary has been listed at $3M and the $3.3 M as salary with benefits.
In the following info, it cites San Fran will pay him $3M as a starting salary (then mentions that is a paycut ) but then in next part says Vitello
contract can grow significantly so will wait and see what the terms are.

he San Francisco Giants will be responsible for paying the $3 million buyout to the University of Tennessee.
Salary: He will earn in excess of $3 million annually, potentially the highest salary in MLB history for a first-year manager.
Potential pay cut: Despite the high salary, sources suggest Vitello is taking a pay cut compared to his recent Tennessee salary of $3.3 million annually.
Future growth: The contract has the potential to grow significantly as Vitello's career progresses.

One thing we don't know yet is how many years his deal is with Giants . Wonder how many years he will get . When Craig Counsel signed with the Cubs , he got a 5 year contract with Chicago.

[ramfandan]

After initial report by some sourcess that Vitello will take a paycut with Giants (which I pesonally find it hard to believe , he would leave his previous job for LESS money ) I now saw this story ..It's an update from Bob Nightengale who originally isssued the pay cut story .. now Nightengale is updating with the following :

https://www.si.com/college/tennessee/ba ... k86qty2edg

"Tony Vitello, who was earning $3.3 million annually with salary and benefits, will be taking a paycut to manage the Giants in his new deal. The Giants also still owe fired Bob Melvin $4 million in 2026."

He then quoted his on post with a new update.

"The San Francisco Giants officially announce the hiring of Tony Vitello and will pay him the highest contract in MLB history for a first-year manager. He will earn in excess of $3 million a year, without the benefits, according to two persons with direct knowledge of his contract."


This was later confirmed by On3's Chris Low, who made a post on his X account.

"Tony Vitello received a considerable raise in taking the San Francisco Giants job. He was making $3 million annually at Tennessee."


For now I will go with the updated story that he will get a 'considerable raise' in taking the Giants job.

He will make MORE than the $3M and that is WITHOUT the benefits included in the numbers. Add those in and the deal goes even higher.

PS I heard on TV that Vitello will be formally introdcuced a week from Thursday in San Francisco . Guess would make sense as Thurs. Oct. 30th is off day following Game 5 of the WS. Right ?

[ramfandan]

Clearing up the more of the 'Vitello will take a pay cut ' stories that circulated.

John Shea of the San Francisco Standard is reporting that Vitello is signing a 3 yr. contract paying him $3.5 M per year (that would be an increase over Vitello's $3M salary per year at Tenn. ) The contract also apparently has a 4th year vested option.

In addition, San Fran will pay the full $3M buyout that Vitello owes to U. Tenn. for leaving its program.

Believe the news conference is a week from Thurs. so more details to follow I would suspect .