Spring training in Arizona for the San Francisco Giants’ coaching staff can’t come soon enough.
While other clubs have been restocking their 40-man roster through trade and free agency, Giants’ ownership has taken a different route to hopefully improve the overall product that will be presented in 2026. Adding a new manager, Tony Vitello, and a coaching staff is what President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey and Giants’ General Manager Zack Minasian are banking on to give this coming season’s squad the edge needed to propel the National League West club into the postseason conversation.
In the past nine MLB seasons, only an appearance in the 2021 National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers is what the Giants have to show for their accomplishments after the regular season scheduled has been completed. Losing in a five-game series to their rival, if all comes to plan by October, a new trend, a winning trend, will begin with San Francisco.
Financially, the Giants can compete with MLB’s biggest spenders: Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees and Mets, and Boston Red Sox. Last season, home games at Oracle Park drew an average of 36,121 fans—seventh among all 30 clubs. With a 2025 team payroll of $173-plus million, the Giants ranked 14th among both leagues. Three clubs with lower payrolls—Milwaukee Brewers, Seattle Mariners, and Detroit Tigers, they all saw postseason action. How monies were spent didn’t translate into success on the field. The Giants’ approach on those who will be filling all nine positions on the diamond and designated hitter next season is prioritized by Posey.
Some clubs are ready to make what they hope are meaningful moves at this week’s Baseball’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida. The Giants have already begun putting coaches in place in hopes they will improve their overall offense and defense statistics. Finishing 81–81 in 2025, good for third place in the National League West behind the free-spending San Diego Padres and World Champion Dodgers, just won’t cut a path to playoff baseball for the Giants moving forward.
Some clubs direct all their player acquisitions toward a youth movement and others with seasoned free agents. This off-season, Posey is rolling baseball’s proverbial dice by going young, for the most part, with his coaching staff. From top to bottom in the Giants’ baseball operations department, those among the directory are quite familiar and presumably equally comfortable with the influx of analytical data. Being able to relate with today’s younger players and speaking baseball with a whole new range of statistics, in theory and hopefully in practice as well, will improve communication between coaches and players in San Francisco.
Posey, 38, completing his first season at the top of the Giants’ baseball operations hierarchy, has quickly surrounded himself with like-thinkers. After the 2024 season, one of Posey’s first hires was Minasian. With a heralded background as a talent evaluator, Minasian, 41, was already employed by the Giants when Posey came aboard San Francisco’s administration. As vice-president of pro scouting, Manasian joined the Giants in 2022. Add in his 14 years working in the Milwaukee Brewers’ front office, and the Giants gained a leader who could look at the game from a pre-analytics era to the highly numbers-driven approach that dominates most, if not all coaching approaches of today.
After Bob Melvin was dismissed as manager of the Giants following two disappointing seasons, Posey continued the youth movement among his staff in taking a risk by hiring Vitello as the Giants’ skipper. Vitello, hired in late October, is the first manager to make the jump from the college ranks directly to running an MLB dugout. Vitello, 47, could be the new voice in the Giants’ clubhouse that will elevate the players’ performances in 2026. A 23-year coaching and managing journey is what brought Vitello to San Francisco. In developing the University of Tennessee Volunteers program into a Southeastern Conference baseball powerhouse, Vitello’s club was the NCAA Division I baseball champion in 2024.
Posey and Minasian pursued Jayce Tingler, 45, to serve as their rookie manager’s bench coach. Like Vitello, Tingler is a University of Missouri alumnus, who brings considerable experience on the MLB level to the Giants’ coaching staff. Having served as manager of the San Diego Padres and assistant general manager for the Texas Rangers, Vitello should have a well-seasoned bench coach to lean on, particularly at the start of the season. Having been a college teammate of Vitello’s for three years during their baseball career at University of Missouri should allow for the transition to leadership in the Giants’ dugout to be relatively seamless.
Posey has also taken an additional step to set up his rookie skipper for success in 2026 by hiring Ron Washington as the Giants’ infield coach this past week. Washington, 73, is the coaching staff’s elder statesman. Having managed in Texas, and starting his second season with the Los Angeles Angels in 2025, Washington has experienced success from the dugout and has gained an excellent reputation within the game as an instructor. During his eight-season run managing the Rangers, Washington’s 2010 and 2011 clubs won back-to-back American League pennants. Last season, after 74 games, Washington took a medical leave after undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery.
With the Giants’ infield set—Matt Chapman at third base, Willy Adames playing shortstop, Casey Schmitt at second base, and Rafael Devers and Bryce Eldridge sharing duties at first base—Washington’s main hurdle has already been cleared. Knowing who will be positioned offers the new infield coach an edge when planning for the upcoming season. Working on fundamentals and double play opportunities are drills that Washington has a history of making infielders go from good to great performers.
The Giants have given Vitello every asset to succeed in 2026 and reverse the postseason blues experience in San Francisco.
