San Francisco Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey has "explicitly" told Tony Vitello he wants him to remain the club's manager next season despite its disappointing debut season under his guidance, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Obviously, he's his own man," Posey said of Vitello. "I haven't felt once in any conversation that we've had that there's any thoughts of jumping ship. All of our conversations are future-oriented, like, 'What do we have to do to get this right?' So if he wasn't (returning), it would come as a surprise to me."
The Giants hired Vitello out of Tennessee last offseason, making him the first college head coach to ever jump straight into the same role in the majors. Vitello's impressive track record with the Volunteers has not translated into success with the Giants, as San Francisco owns the second-worst record in the National League at 56-81 and will miss the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.
Vitello, who's under contract for two more seasons, is motivated to help the Giants return to relevancy.
"When you get somewhere, you always want to leave it better," he said. "And I'm personally willing to go through hell or high water to do that."
Despite San Francisco's record, Posey believes Vitello and his staff have had a positive impact this season.
"The coaching staff's done a nice job," Posey said. "It's always a hard thing because people are like, 'Well, you're 25 games or whatever under, how can you say they did a nice job?' But I'm watching them every day and the work that they're putting in, some of the improvements that (players) are making; from my vantage point, they've done a nice job."
