The San Francisco Giants’ season-opening series against the New York Yankees in their home park ended on a disappointing note. The Yankees swept the series by winning it, 3-0, and it brought an onslaught of criticism on the Giants’ new manager, Tony Vitello. However, one former San Francisco pitcher blamed the person behind Vitello’s hiring, demanding his removal from the franchise.
The Giants hired former Tennessee coach Tony Vitello in October. He became the first college head coach to be directly promoted to an MLB manager. Giants veteran Mike LaCoss is not a fan of the decision to hire Vitello, especially after the team’s fresh loss. LaCoss called KNBR’s The Murph & Markus Show to let out his frustrations about hiring Vitello and express his disappointment towards Larry Baer, president of baseball operations. The former All-Star believes that the Giants won’t succeed unless they remove Baer, calling him “the head of the snake.”
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“They have the most hated executive in Major League Baseball still around. Until they cut the head of the snake off, the baseball gods are going to continue to punish. That’s all I’m going to say. You’ll figure it out,” remarked LaCoss.
Baer has been with the Giants since 1992 as a co-owner in a group. The ownership group bought the team to prevent the Giants’ shift to Tampa Bay. He became the president in 2008 and was selected as the CEO in 2012. Baer has continued to hold his designation as the CEO and the president despite his suspension in 2019.
The veteran pitcher called the morning radio show, warning the hosts that he had some negative opinions that might offend the listeners. Having said that, LaCoss did not mince his words. He called the hiring of Vitello straight from college “a slap in the face” of all those minor league and bench coaches, who deserved a chance to manage an MLB team. To LaCoss, bypassing them for Vitello is insulting.
“The hiring of the college guy, don’t you think that’s kind of a slap in the face to all of the minor league managers in professional baseball and all of the bench coaches in Major League Baseball that think about becoming a major league manager? They just bypassed all those guys and threw this college guy in there,” opined LaCoss.
LaCoss became an All-Star with the Cincinnati Reds in 1979. He had spent the final six (1986-1991) of his 11 MLB seasons with the Giants, and he feels Vitello is not the right choice.
Vitello was hired directly from college without having any prior experience in managing an MLB team. The rookie MLB manager signed a three-year contract with the Giants that would pay him $3.5 million annually.
Vitello took the blame for the loss, stating that his pregame speech might have left the players too fired up. The Giants’ loss adds to Vitello’s lack of experience, resulting in veterans like LaCoss thinking that he is incompetent. While LaCoss admitted he did not particularly want Vitello to fail, he criticised Vitello’s approach. He warned that Vitello’s “word salads are going to get worse and worse” if the Giants don’t succeed.
Meanwhile, Vitello has opened up about the biggest adjustment he made as he took up the role of an MLB manager.
Vitello talks about the biggest MLB adjustment
The first official week of Tony Vitello’s debut as an MLB manager was rough, to say the least.
The Giants’ 3-0 loss to the Yankees in the three-game series is one of the worst in franchise history. They scored only one run in the series during their 3-1 loss in Game 3. Furthermore, for the first time in the team’s 144-year history, the Giants were shut out in back-to-back games.
The loss would have certainly drawn heavy criticism, but Vitello’s pressers only made it worse. He tried to take the blame for the loss by saying his fiery pre-game speech was too intense, a notion that Robbie Ray and Heliot Ramos dismissed.
Vitello dug the hole even deeper when speaking to Ken Rosenthal about the biggest adjustment he made in the MLB.
“I can’t talk down to guys anymore, they’re my age, or it feels like they’re close to it,” joked Vitello in an interview with Fox Sports.
However, his attempt at a joke fell flat and raised questions. The Giants have a fairly young 40-man roster, with Robbie Ray being the oldest at 34.
Keeping his attempt at the joke aside, the new manager further added that the real adjustment has been the extent of it all. As an MLB coach, Vitello has to get used to more staff, more players, and especially more fans and their opinions.
