Tony Vitello is no stranger to Giants franchise lore.

Vitello was a 9-year-old sitting in the right-field seats at Busch Stadium when Will Clark incited a benches-clearing brawl after sliding hard into St. Louis Cardinals second baseman José Oquendo. He remembers watching Kevin Mitchell’s improbable barehanded grab, then trying to recreate it himself. Decades later, Vitello sat behind home plate for Game 7 of the 2014 World Series and witnessed Madison Bumgarner pitch five innings of relief to deliver the Giants’ third World Series in five years.

The 47-year-old Vitello rattled off a laundry list of names during his introductory press conference last Thursday, including future Hall of Famers Bruce Bochy and Dusty Baker. Despite possessing no prior professional experience, Vitello will take on the task of making an unprecedented leap from college to the pros and join the ranks of those icons.

Vitello is no longer responsible for recruiting players like he was at Tennessee — that’s president of baseball operations Buster Posey’s domain. But in the coming weeks, he will assemble his coaching staff, a unit that can help cover Vitello’s blind spots as he navigates new obstacles at the major-league level.

“My biggest thing is for everybody to be on the same page,” Vitello said. “Pulling on the same rope is a cliché for a reason. We talked about how long the season is, so it’s important to have a group of guys that are willing to be there through thick and thin. It literally is a marriage for the course of the season.

“For me, it doesn’t have to be the brightest, the best, the most experienced or the best résume. It needs to be the guy that’s going to have your back.”

Posey said in early October after firing Bob Melvin that he wanted to give his new manager agency in creating a coaching staff. While there will be new faces joining the organization, Vitello won’t be starting from scratch. Vitello said on Thursday there had already been conversations about keeping members of last year’s staff; Posey added that he expects holdovers.

Among those returning could be pitching coach J.P. Martinez and assistant hitting coach Oscar Bernard, who are both under contract for next season. In addition to providing continuity, Martinez and Bernard are also bilingual. Vitello has little, if any, experience coaching players from Latin America, so having Spanish-speaking coaches for both pitchers and hitters would be invaluable.

“Who makes up the staff is really key. I think also, just making an effort — which involves work ethic — to meet that challenge in particular head-on,” Vitello said of coaching players from Latin America. “Regardless of people’s backgrounds, when you’re in a work environment, you need to get to know who people are and you need to build relationships. You also want to build a trust level there that they’re willing to come to you with certain things.”

Along with Martinez and Bernard, the list of returners could include first-base coach Mark Hallberg, bullpen coach Garvin Alston, catching coach Alex Burg and major-league quality control coach Taira Uematsu.

For all the continuity, there will also be notable changes.

Ryan Christianson and Matt Williams will not return next season after serving as Melvin’s bench coach and third-base coach, respectively. It also remains to be seen whether Pat Burrell will return for a third year as hitting coach after the Giants were a below-average offense in back-to-back seasons.

As far as additions, one potential candidate is Antoan Richardson, who served as the Giants’ first-base coach under former manager Gabe Kapler. Richardson will not return to the Mets in 2026 following two seasons with the team, and a reunion in San Francisco could help revitalize the Giants’ stagnant run game.

The Giants have been the least aggressive stealing team since Major League Baseball implemented rule changes that incentivized stealing. Since 2023, San Francisco ranks last in the majors in steals (193) and attempts (255). The Giants also haven’t had a player steal 30 bases in a single season since Dave Roberts in 2007.

Richardson can help in this department. The Mets had the lowest average sprint speed in the majors last season but still finished fifth in the majors in steals (147). Juan Soto stole a career-high 38 bases (his previous career-high was 12) despite ranking in the 13th percentile in sprint speed.

“Antoan did an unbelievable job,” Soto said. “He’s been helping me since day one. I give him all the credit.”

“We’re going through names, and he’s obviously a name I’m familiar with and was able to work with him,” Posey said.

Logan Webb knows first-hand how Richardson can impact a ballgame. Webb only allowed nine steals this season en route to winning his first Gold Glove Award, but three of those steals were Webb’s outing against the Mets in late July. When the Giants flew to New York the following week, Webb caught up with Richardson about what he saw.

“He’s a really good baserunning coach,” Webb said.

Another possibility for Vitello’s coaching staff is Jayce Tingler, who played alongside Vitello at Missouri.

Tingler’s experience in the majors would be invaluable for Vitello, given his lack of professional experience. Along with managing the San Diego Padres in 2020 and ‘21, Tingler spent four seasons as a coach for the Texas Rangers (‘15, ‘16, ‘18, ‘19) and has spent the last three seasons as the Minnesota Twins’ bench coach under recently fired manager Rocco Baldelli. Tingler also speaks Spanish and has spent time in both the Dominican Summer League and Dominican Winter League.

With Derek Shelton taking over as the Twins’ manager following Baldelli’s firing, Tingler could very well entertain an opportunity to join his former teammate in San Francisco as a bench coach.

It’s also worth wondering whether Vitello will look back to the college game to fill out his coaching staff. While Vitello is making an unprecedented move, there are recent examples of collegiate assistant coaches leaping from the amateur game to the pros.

Detroit Tigers pitching coach Chris Fetter was the pitching coach at Ball State (2016) and Michigan (2017-20) before joining the Detroit Tigers in ‘21. There’s also Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson, who was the pitching coach at Vanderbilt for a decade before joining the professional ranks.

There’s no shortage of challenges that await Vitello in his first season at the professional level. His coaching staff will be invaluable in helping him navigate those inevitable bumps in the road.

Webb not named NL Cy Young finalist

Logan Webb arguably turned in the best season of his career. His 207 innings led the majors, and his career-high 224 strikeouts led the National League. He earned his second All-Star selection, and on Sunday, Webb took home his first Gold Glove Award.

For all Webb accomplished, he was not named a finalist for the 2025 NL Cy Young Award when the finalists were revealed on Monday evening.

The three finalists for the award are the Philadelphia Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez; the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who also won 2025 World Series MVP; and the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Paul Skenes, who is considered the favorite.

Webb will likely finish in the top five after becoming the first Giant to lead the National League in both innings and strikeouts since Bill Voiselle did so for the 1944 New York Giants. Regardless of where he finishes, it will mark his fourth consecutive year he has received votes.

The right-hander finished with a career-best 2.60 FIP (fielding independent pitching), which ranked fourth among all pitchers in the majors behind only Skenes (2.36), Tarrik Skubal (2.45) and Sánchez (2.55). Webb’s 3.22 ERA, though, was significantly higher than that of Skenes (1.97), Yamamoto (2.49) and Sánchez (2.50). Webb also allowed 210 hits, the most in the majors.

Giants decline Murphy’s club option

The Giants also announced on Monday evening that they have declined catcher Tom Murphy’s $4 million club option for 2026, making Murphy a free agent.

The team will pay Murphy a $250,000 buyout.

Murphy signed a two-year, $8.25 million deal ahead of the 2024 season with a club option for ‘26, but he only played 13 total games with the club — all in ‘24 — due to injuries. He sustained an injury at the beginning of spring training and didn’t spend a single day with the major-league team.

In Murphy’s absence, Andrew Knizner (29 games), Sam Huff (20 games) and Logan Porter (four games) served as the backup catchers for Patrick Bailey, who is now a two-time Gold Glove Award winner.