Giants Keep Tony Vitello as Manager

Former Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt defended manager Tony Vitello after a 97-loss season and a playoff miss.

Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in Baseball

Wide photograph of an empty baseball diamond with green outfield grass and clay infield under cool fog at a coastal ballpark. — The San Francisco Giants will keep manager Tony Vitello for a second season after a 97-loss year that ended in a ninth playoff miss in ten years. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

The San Francisco Giants will retain Tony Vitello as manager for a second season. Former Giants reliever Jeremy Affeldt defended Vitello on the television program "Foul Territory" after the team finished with 97 losses and missed the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years.

Why it matters

Vitello made the jump directly from college coaching at Tennessee to the major leagues, and the decision to keep him signals the club's patience during a season marked by heavy injuries. Affeldt's comments suggest the new manager faces extra scrutiny that comes with that background.

The Giants lost 97 games in 2026 and missed the postseason for the ninth time in the past decade. Vitello led all of MLB with seven ejections, while the extraction does not detail the injury replacements the club will use next season.

The players

Tony Vitello

Vitello is the San Francisco Giants manager in his first major league season after a career in college baseball at Tennessee.

Jeremy Affeldt

Affeldt is a former Giants relief pitcher who now appears as a baseball analyst on television.

The details

Affeldt said on "Foul Territory" that Vitello was always going to face extra scrutiny for coming from college coaching. He added that Buster Posey now needs to challenge Vitello to keep growing as the team's leader.

2026 season: Giants finished with 97 losses and missed the playoffs.
November 13, 2026: Affeldt defended Vitello on "Foul Territory."

Season Trajectory

Retaining Vitello after a 97-loss season shows the Giants are betting that a first-year manager's transition from college ball needs more than one year to take hold. The decision affects the team's standing in the National League West as it seeks to end its playoff drought.

The retention confirms Vitello will manage the Giants through a second season, which shapes how fantasy and season-ticket holders should expect the lineup and bullpen to be handled. Fans tracking the club should watch whether injured players return to the roster before spring training.

The takeaway

A single season is rarely enough to judge a manager who arrives from a different level of the sport. The Giants' choice to keep Vitello puts the focus on whether his first-year lessons translate into wins in 2027.