Bruce Bochy’s Hilarious First Question for New Giants Manager Tony Vitello

Tony Vitello has great voices to lean on in his first season as manager of the San Francisco Giants, including franchise legend Bruce Bochy.

Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy (15) talks with the media in the dugout during batting practice before a game against the Toronto Blue Jays. | Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

Few managers in recent memory will be as scrutinized in their first season guiding a team as Tony Vitello will be as San Francisco Giants manager in 2026.

In recent memory, no college coach with no professional baseball experience as a player or coach as gone straight to the manager’s chair in the Majors. The Vitello experiment will be important to him, to the Giants to every college head coach that would like to guide a Major League team one day. It has the potential to change how MLB teams hire managers.

Vitello has lucked into a good situation. President of baseball operations Buster Posey, a former Giants player, has carved out a reputation as a risk-taker. Vitello has leaned into MLB experience with his coaching staff, hiring two former managers for his staff — former Padres skipper Jayce Tingler as his bench coach and former Rangers and Angels manager Ron Washington as his infield coach.

Plus, he has two future Hall of Famers to bounce ideas off — Giants special advisors Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy, both of whom guided the Giants for more than a decade. Both have spoken to Vitello since he was hired, and Bochy took the opportunity to have a bit of fun with him.

Bruce Bochy’s First Question for Tony Vitello

D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images

As Bochy told NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic recently, Bochy had dinner with Vitello and his parents earlier in the offseason. Bochy knows of Vitello because he makes his offseason home in Nashville, to be close to his children and grandchildren. Vitello was a few hours away in Knoxville before he took the Giants job.

As they sat down to dinner, Bochy posed a question most folks in Tennessee wanted to know after he took the job.

"First I asked him if he was nuts," Bochy said, smiling. "Because I live in Tennessee now and, of course, I know how big he was there and how popular and what a great program they had there in Tennessee. But he's ready for a new challenge and he couldn't find a better spot than San Francisco and I told him that.”

Bochy just wrapped up a three-year stint with the Texas Rangers, where he went 249-237 and led them to the 2023 World Series title. He has 2,252 career wins, sixth-most in baseball history. He is one of three managers to win a World Series in both leagues. Assuming he doesn’t take another Major League job, he’ll be eligible to be considered for the Hall of Fame in 2027, along with Baker.

Vitello takes over the Giants after spending eight seasons at Tennessee, where he rebuilt the Volunteers into one of the best baseball programs in NCAA Division I. That reached a zenith in 2024 when he guided Tennessee to 60 wins and the Men’s College World Series championship in 2024. He also took the program to the MCWS in 2021 and 2023. He also led the program to two SEC regular-season and tournament championships.