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When Buster Posey tapped University of Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello to manage the Giants, the decision was labeled unconventional, surprising, and outside the box.

A week after Vitello was introduced at Oracle Park, the hire has already lost some of its shock value.

Following a series of front-office shakeups and unexpected manager hires, it’s clear that major league teams are increasingly willing to take bigger swings — and potentially endure bigger whiffs — to build a winner. 

On the morning of Vitello’s introductory press conference, the Nationals agreed to a deal with 33-year-old Blake Butera, who became MLB’s youngest manager in more than 50 years. On Thursday, the San Diego Padres hired a former relief pitcher with no prior coaching experience, Craig Stammen, as manager — a move USA Today columnist Bob Nightengale called “stunning.”

“In a season of shocking managerial hires, this one tops the list,” ESPN’s Jeff Passan posted on X.

Hours after the Padres hired Stammen, the Colorado Rockies named Paul DePodesta, a Cleveland Browns executive, as president of baseball operations.

Of the three major hires National League West teams have made this offseason, the Giants’ decision to pluck Vitello out of the college ranks may be the most vanilla. Vitello has a long track record of leading baseball teams, and while those rosters have been made up of 18- to 23-year-olds, his résumé suggests he has a level of familiarity with at least some elements of the job.

In a hiring cycle that has defied expectations, it’s time to reassess if the Giants are truly bold and cutting-edge or merely blending in with other teams searching for an advantage in unfamiliar territory. 

Vitello broke the college-to-MLB barrier, and the Giants are banking on his background in player development, familiarity with analytics and new technology, and extensive experience in building relationships with new players (college rosters turn over much faster than MLB teams) to usher in a more successful era. Three of the seven other manager hires — Butera, Stammen, and new Angels manager Kurt Suzuki — have never coached at the big-league level, so perhaps Vitello’s hire shouldn’t be considered unusual.

The Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series and are poised to enter the 2026 season as the favorite to win another ring, so their NL West foes are naturally desperate to find any potential competitive edge. Some MLB teams will undoubtedly look to upgrade their rosters, while others will look for marginal advantages with smart hires in the front office and the dugout. Several — including the Giants — will try some combination of both, doing whatever they can to close a gigantic gap.

Vitello might help the cause, but labeling his hiring as the biggest, boldest move of the offseason would be a misnomer. The Giants are thinking outside the box, but apparently everyone else is too.