Former MLB GM Says Manager Tony Vitello is ‘Embarrassing’ Giants

Many have been critical of the San Francisco Giants hiring former Tennessee coach Tony Vitello as manager. But Jim Bowden took it to a new level.

During an appearance on “Foul Territory,” the former MLB general manager critiqued the new manager’s first three games and his post-game comments for the weekend and ended a three-minute-long discourse on Vitello by saying that if he were in the Giants’ shoes he’d be embarrassed.

“We want him to be himself, but we also want them to be professional and not embarrass us which right now he's embarrassing us [the Giants] is my take,” Bowden said.

Jim Bowden on Tony Vitello

"We want him to be himself, but we also don't want him to embarrass us, which he's doing right now, in my opinion."@JimBowdenGM pitches the idea of Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker sitting down with Tony Vitello after every game to go over decisions, the media, etc. pic.twitter.com/hUTNa09kr8
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) March 31, 2026

There is no question there is a learning curve for Vitello in the Majors after eight years as Tennessee head baseball coach. He led the Volunteers to a national championship and has no experience professionally. Bowden said he was ignoring the fact that the Giants were swept by the Yankees and only scored one run in the series, saying “The Yankees have a better team, they [the Giants] went up against amazing pitching.”

He said he was evaluating Vitello as a manager and said “he's not ready yet” after three games.

Bowden pointed to Vitello leaving starter Logan Webb in for five innings in his opening day start as one miss. Webb gave up seven runs, including five runs in the second inning, while throwing 86 pitches. Bowden said that was “perplexing for me” that Webb was in the game.

He also pointed to pitching to the decision to pitch to Yankees slugger Aaron Judge in Saturday’s game with left-hander Ryan Borucki on the mound for San Francisco. With two left-handed hitters behind Judge, Bowden said Vitello should have had Borucki walk Judge. Instead, the slugger homered. He also was critical of where the Giants put the ambulance at Oracle Park which was hit by Judge’s home run.

“What’s an ambulance doing there in left field?” Bowden said. “How many times is that going to get hit this year? That's a pretty stupid place for it.”

NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic noted that it’s the only place the ambulance can go at Oracle Park.

He also described Vitello’s demeanor in the dugout as looking like “a deer in the headlights” when talking with coaches and essentially talking to pros like college kids.

“When you get to the big leagues there's not a player in that dugout that doesn't have more professional experience than Tony Vitello,” Bowden said. “Most of them are getting paid more than Tony Vitello. So, if Tony wants to sit there and say college stuff to Major League players they're going to push back. It's not going to play well.”

He may have been referring to Vitello’s comment about his “fire and brimstone” speech to his players before the season started, which he said later believed made the team play tighter. He also attempted to shift blame to himself for San Francisco’s poor offensive start.

Bowden offered a solution, but one that would require the team’s two soon-to-be Hall of Fame former managers — Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker — to work far harder than they would likely prefer as special assistants to the organization.

“I'm gonna let them split the duties, OK?” Bowden said. “What we're going to do after every single game and after every single press conference of every single game, one of them is going to sit down and go through the game with Tony Vitello. They’re going to talk about all the moves, what he did what he didn't do, what he could do, what he should do, what he's going to do tomorrow and the next day. And, then we're gonna break down what he what he said to the media and what works and doesn't work.”

While certainly the pair are assets to Vitello, along with former managers Jayce Tingler and Ron Washigton, who are on his staff, it’s unlikely president of baseball operations Buster Posey is going to ask one of them to debrief Vitello twice per day.

It felt like a significant overreaction given that Vitello had four games of MLB experience under his belt through Monday’s win. If rookie players are cut slack when they join the Majors, shouldn’t a rookie manager get the same slack? Bowden’s three minutes on Vitello seemed to indicate he didn’t believe so.

“I like the man,” Bowden said. “I think he's a good communicator. I think he's got great energy. I think he's a lot of fun. I think he's over his head.”