SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Vitello had a feeling something was brewing.

Following the Giants’ firing of Bob Melvin, Vitello boarded a flight to the East Coast on a recruiting trip. The plane had no Wi-Fi, leaving Vitello briefly disconnected to the world. Upon landing, a text message from Buster Posey awaited.

“The season had ended, they had made some moves, and I kind of just said, ‘Oh hell’ to myself. ‘Here we go, this could be something,’” Vitello recalled.

Vitello’s prognosis proved to be correct.

Several weeks after Posey sent that text, the Giants officially introduced Vitello as the 40th manager in franchise history on Thursday afternoon. Vitello’s résumé features no professional experience as a player, coach or manager, but Posey, Zack Minasian and the Giants’ brass are betting on the man who transformed Tennessee from a bottom dweller of the SEC to one of college baseball’s best programs.

It would not be hyperbolic to describe this venture as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Vitello. But as Vitello, Posey and Minasian shared on Thursday, getting to this point was a slow burn.

“They took their time, they gave me space, they gave me a bunch of information,” Vitello said. “And then the people that I was able to lean on were incredible to me.”

As Posey and Minasian compiled a list of potential candidates, Minasian floated the idea of Vitello as a possibility for their managerial vacancy.

Minasian served as the Giants’ vice president of professional scouting before becoming the team’s general manager, and in that role, he became familiar with Vitello’s Tennessee teams. He watched as the Vols stacked wins and Vitello stacked accolades, churning out draft pick after draft pick in the process.

“As much as this feels out of the box, Tony’s name has been bouncing around Major League Baseball for a while,” Minasian said. “Tennessee’s program has been top-notch, which means there’s a lot of good players that we’re talking about year in and year out. I’ve been fortunate to watch them, and the nature of this job is you’re always evaluating everything.”

Posey got to know Vitello before this recent recruiting process. This past summer, Posey and Minasian chatted with Vitello prior to selecting infielder Gavin Kilen with the 13th overall pick in the 2025 MLB draft. Posey also ran into Vitello during the Giants’ trip to Coors Field in September; Vitello was in town to catch up with several former Vols, outfielder Drew Gilbert being one of them.

“I started to joke with Zack as we were getting into this more that we need to find somebody that doesn’t like him because everybody was just raving about this guy,” Posey said.

Among those who liked Vitello as a candidate were former Giants managers Dusty Baker and Bruce Bochy. Posey spoke with both Baker and Bochy during the process, sharing that they “came away feeling very positive about the person.”

The Giants’ intrigue only continued to grow when Posey struggled to get in contact with Vitello.

Despite the Giants’ interest, Vitello remained committed to running Tennessee’s baseball program — a program he built into a national champion and a national brand. For Posey, Vitello’s commitment to the Vols “made me feel even more confident in this decision.”

“This guy was hard to get a hold of because he was on the field all the time, or he was bouncing from city-to-city recruiting,” Posey said. “Just because this was on his plate, he was still full-go with what his job was at Tennessee. I have a tremendous amount of respect for that.”

At one point in the process, Vitello flew to San Francisco to discuss the position with Posey and other members of the front office. When Nick Hundley removed his name from consideration — the Giants never formally offered Hundley the position — Vitello emerged as a top candidate.

Vitello said he didn’t think there was ever really an ‘a-ha’ moment when making the decision, but pointed to a conversation with Posey after Game 7 of the ALCS between the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners on Oct. 20.

“It kind of bled into the next day,” Vitello said. “Nothing was honestly done until probably later than you people realize, with all due respect.”

On Oct. 22, hundreds of fans chanted Vitello’s name during a scrimmage at Tennessee’s Lindsey Nelson Stadium to sway him to stay. The next day, Vitello made his decision.

Vitello acknowledged that leaving Knoxville wasn’t easy, noting that there had to be “a certain set of circumstances” to even consider leaving. This opportunity, then, fulfills that certain set of circumstances.

“Two words that I diagnosed are risk and challenge, and they’re both kind of the same thing,” Vitello said. “If you talk about risk, it kind of sounds like you can lose it all if it doesn’t go well. But, to me, this was more about a challenge. No matter how each day goes … regardless of how it goes, are you willing to meet the challenge? And what a challenge is is something that you find out what you can and can’t do. That’s something that we’ve preached to our players all the time at Tennessee. So, who am I to preach that but to not do it?”

The Giants also had to work out the hefty financial side of the equation.

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At Tennessee, Vitello had an annual salary of $3 million. In San Francisco, Vitello will earn $3.5 million per year during his three-year deal with a fourth-year vesting option. Along with Vitello’s salary, the Giants are on the hook for Vitello’s $3 million buyout, as well as the $4 million they must pay Melvin after Posey picked up his option in July before firing him in September.

All in all, they will pay $10.5 million to the manager position in 2026.

“There was hesitation at first because he had a long-term deal,” said Giants chairman Greg Johnson. “He was very comfortable there. I think when Buster first floated it, he just kind of floated the name. I went back and did a little research (and thought), ‘Wait a m ute, this guy’s making $3 million on a long-term deal, how would you possibly get him to go?’ But again, the more we talked about it and the more excited Buster got about it, I think we felt like that investment made sense for what we were looking for.”

Added Posey: “Greg’s been great on all these negotiations. Like any negotiation, there’s a threshold you’re going to get to. It wasn’t just, ‘Here’s a blank check, do what you want.’ But he was supportive.”