Buster Posey may start career-defining trend with surprising Giants managerial link

Buster Posey was a superstar player for the San Francisco Giants, and now he's hoping to be a superstar executive for that same organization. His first season didn't exactly go as planned, but we can't say Posey is conventional, particularly after news broke that the Giants were close to hiring Tony Vitello, the now former University of Tennessee head baseball coach, to be their next manager.

Vitello, 47, helped transform the Volunteers from irrelevancy to a Division I powerhouse. I'm not going to say the Giants have been irrelevant in recent years, but they've made the postseason just once since 2017, and they haven't won a postseason series since 2016, when they won the Wild Card Game.

Vitello will be asked to lead the Giants on a turnaround, and in doing so, Posey is creating the opportunity for other collegiate coaches to follow in Vitello's footsteps if this experiement goes well.

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Buster Posey opens the door to possible managerial trend with Tony Vitello hire

Per The Athletic's Andrew Baggarly, the deal is not yet completed, but the Giants are closing in on his hiring. Here's what Baggarly had to say about what Vitello brings to the table.

"Should they cross the finish line, Vitello’s hiring for a major-league managerial position would be an extraordinary and nearly unprecedented leap for someone with no professional coaching experience. But Posey was seeking a big personality who could imbue the Giants’ clubhouse with confidence, and Vitello’s dynamism and charisma have been on full display in both his recruiting efforts as well as the Volunteers’ brash and buoyant style of play while advancing to the College World Series in three of the past five seasons," Baggarly wrote.

It's relatively unheard of in the modern era for teams to hire managers with no professional coaching experience of any kind, but Posey seemingly fell in love with Vitello's personality. He was able to get the most out of his Volunteers teams, so why couldn't that translate to the big league level?

Is it a risk to hire someone without professional experience to be a manager right away? Hiring Vitello to be a bench coach or play some other role might've been more conventional, but this further shows that Posey is unlike most executives in the game today.

Buster Posey proves once again that he's far from conventional

Posey went from a manager who is universally recognized as one of the best in the game in Bob Melvin, and replaced him with a complete unknown. He could've gone the easy route when finding a Melvin replacement and hired a former manager like Bruce Bochy or even a former player who they reportedly heavily considered, like Nick Hundley, but he went with the complete unknown.

I applaud Posey's willingness to do what he thinks is right, even if it is unconventional. If it works, this is something other teams will try to emulate. If it doesn't, he might lose his job.

This is a boom-or-bust hire. Hiring a college head coach with no professional experience to be a manager could very well lead to building the consistent winner Posey is envisioning. It could also prove to be a disaster if Vitello is unable to adjust to the pros. Baseball might be baseball at the end of the day, but MLB is nowhere near the same as Division I baseball.

It's unconventional, yet that's where Posey appears to be very comfortable. This is the same executive who, seemingly out of nowhere, traded for Rafael Devers in mid-June, taking on the remainder of his massive salary from the Boston Red Sox in the process. That deal was a risk, and I can't say it paid off in the first year of it, but who knows - Devers might lead the Giants back to the Fall Classic for the first time since 2014 sooner rather than later.

Vitello is going to have to manage Devers' ego and that of many other stars on this roster. This is a career-defining decision Posey just made. Again, if it works, he'll look like a genius, and he will have started a trend. If it doesn't, and the Giants struggle to get back to the postseason, he might lose his job.