Manager Tony Vitello reacts after being ejected by umpire Ryan Blakney, left, during the first inning of a game between the Giants and the Cincinnati Reds, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)
Part of Tony Vitello’s charm is he doesn’t need much coaxing to come out of his shell.
The San Francisco Giants’ rookie manager came as advertised. Since Day 1 of this season he’s been talkative and a bit brash, speaking off the cuff and certainly from the heart.
Only over the last month, though, has the true Vitello come out on the field.
One of the ways Vitello has settled in isn’t technically something to celebrate: Umpires gave him the quick toss three times over the last two weeks, bringing his season total to six ejections heading into Wednesday’s game, tied for most in MLB with Pittsburgh’s Don Kelly.
Much has been made about the nature of the ejections. Umpires seem to be giving Vitello – plucked from the college ranks right into the majors – a quicker hook than they would managers with more pro experience. It’s fair to wonder if the impatience stems from a lack of respect for Vitello, some in the Giants organization assert. Quick or not, the players are feeling his fire.
“I love it. It fires me up,” fellow rookie Bryce Eldridge said. “He’s a guy that you want to play for and a guy that you want to win for. He’s definitely been firing me up.”
That attitude was a large part of the vision president of baseball operations Buster Posey and general manager Zack Minasian had when they brought Vitello aboard in an unprecedented hire.
Tony Vitello’s ejections through Sept. 8, 2026
April 5, at home, vs. Mets: Giants lost 5-2.
July 11, at home, vs. Rockies: Giants won 4-2.
July 22, at Kansas City, vs. Royals: Giants lost 5-4.
August 26, at home, vs. Reds: Giants lost 10-9.
August 28, at home, vs. Diamondbacks: Giants lost 10-6.
Sept. 5, at New York, vs. Mets: Giants won 9-5.
“For us, it just shows that he really cares about us, and he gets pissed when things don’t go our way because he wants to win and he’s competitive,” Logan Webb said. “So I think it fires the group up. I’m pretty sure we play pretty well when he does get ejected. I don’t know the numbers on that.”
The numbers don’t back that up, with their going 2-4 in the games Vitello has been tossed from. They’re already mathematically eliminated from contention, an outcome determined far earlier in the season, and the Giants front office traded off a host of movable veterans accordingly. There’s little pride fans can latch onto as the team tumbles into their fifth straight year without a postseason berth with one of the worst records in baseball.
Vitello has come under fire for this dismal year, his newness to the league showing early on when he navigated how to use his bench for tactical matchups, and he kept his head down when three pitchers protested Pride Night by defacing their uniform caps.
Moving through those concerns, Vitello is becoming more and more like the outspoken leader that made him a collegiate coaching star at Tennessee. With the advent of ABS and replay review, there are fewer opportunities to dispute balls and strikes and questionable calls, but Vitello is finding ways to speak up when he’s peeved, hoping to develop a rapport with the umpires.
It has not gone smoothly.
“Not as of late, to be honest with you,” Vitello said, asked if he feels comfortable talking to umpires.
Vitello’s fourth ejection happened on Aug. 26, when he took exception to a check-swing call that the Giants thought should have gone Webb’s way, yelling his gripe from the dugout before home-plate umpire Ryan Blakney tossed him, prompting a profanity-laced tirade from Vitello.
Several days later against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Nolan Arenado was awarded a double for a ball hit near the foul line. Webb, who happened to be watching on the screens in the batting cage, ran back to the dugout to tell Vitello the ball bounced clearly foul. Webb was heated, realizing his starter, Blade Tidwell, was “getting the short end of the stick.”
“It was probably partially my fault that he got ejected,” Webb said, who also got ejected.
Manager Tony Vitello, left, gestures after being ejected by umpire Ryan Blakney during a baseball game between the Giants and the Cincinnati Reds, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)
What followed was a heated interaction with plenty of f-bombs thrown about with home-plate umpire Alan Porter that Vitello felt crossed a line into the personal. Not just because of the words used, but because of how quick the hook was.
“Just to be frank, that’s personally the most I’ve felt personally attacked on the field before,” Vitello said. “Just the entire approach to everything. We went from zero to 10 in a hurry.”
The crew told Vitello he should have come out of the dugout to dispute a call. This one wasn’t reviewable, and there’s no rule stipulating managers have to go onto the field in that situation.
Ron Wotus, one of the Giants’ longest tenured coaches and returning to a uniformed role for home games this year, has seen his fair share of ejections, gripes and heated conversations, having worked with six managers in San Francisco. He knows an unusually quick hook when he sees it.
Wotus made his displeasure known when he took the lineup card out for Game 1 of the next day’s double-header and was ejected then and there.
“I think there have been some real quick ejections this year on managers,” Wotus said. “And the real good umpires, the good ones aren’t like that, they use common sense. They’ll talk things out, and it works both ways, right? So there’s mutual respect.”
Vitello decided to keep his mouth shut for a week after his being tossed by Porter. On Sept. 5, he couldn’t hold back when he challenged a call that Turner Hill had fouled off a pitch when it appeared the pitch hit him on the hand. The call was upheld, prompting Vitello to emerge from the dugout – as he was instructed the previous week – to discuss the decision. Vitello told reporters after the game he wanted to “calm the situation, and got thrown out for walking out of the dugout.”
Webb has played for four managers (including Bruce Bochy, Gabe Kapler and Bob Melvin), and thinks how Vitello has been treated is noticeably different.
“I think when it comes to Tony, I don’t know if it’s an ‘earn your stripes’ type of thing, but at the end of the day, to me, that’s BS a little bit. I think he’s just sticking up for those guys,” Webb said. “There have been a couple situations where he’s been told he can’t come out, and then he does come out, and they tell him he can’t come out. It’s just different things where I feel like maybe there’s some leeway when you look at some of the older managers around baseball.”
Umpires’ responsibilities have been largely automated over the last decade, and a few instances have shown ways in which they’re asserting their authority outside of that. Veteran umpire Doug Eddings got into hot water when he told St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Hancel Rincon during his big league debut to straighten his tilted cap; there is no rule to support Eddings’ actions. Manager Oli Marmol was ejected for taking exception to Eddings’ heavy hand and days later MLB told Eddings he’d gone too far. The umpire subsequently apologized to Rincon on the field.
The Chronicle reached out to the league to speak with an umpiring crew representative. MLB declined to make one available for comment.
Giants manager Tony Vitello reacts after being ejected during a baseball game against the Cincinnati Reds, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, in San Francisco. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)
Vitello doesn’t see himself as a victim and he hasn’t reached Bobby Cox levels of being tossed. (Cox’s single-season high for being tossed was 11, and he holds the MLB record for career ejections with 162 total.) Resentment over Vitello not earning his stripes – the right to get up in arms – was to be expected for a new manager earning $3.5 million, more than most MLB managers with years of experience.
Vitello says he has been fined “more times than not” following his six ejections and has paid each one without appeal. The Porter toss was the only one he says he takes exception to.
“Whatever you’ve got to do. I’m not in this for money,” he said. “I just want us to keep getting better and win. You make friends, you make enemies. I’m not too worried about it.
“I’m not trying to be the guy who’s always on the field, or a guy who’s trying to take attention away from the players who deserve it, or anything like that.”
Much like he did at Tennessee, he sees these opportunities as a chance to be a “spokesman” for the team – even as he navigates how to be tactful while sticking up for his guys as a major-league manager.
Vitello’s fiery side is showing through as the stakes have plummeted and a younger group of players has taken over the clubhouse. It’s worth wondering if a blend of inexperience and working with a veteran-heavy roster saw a more tentative Vitello. Now that he’s managing players also just breaking into the league, it seems like he’s settling in. Over the last month, Vitello has been hosting more “powwows” in his office, Eldridge said, mostly with younger players. They talk baseball, about “how to create a winning culture,” tossing around thoughts and ideas and sometimes gab about off-field topics.
Players say they see the Vitello they expected, coming into his own.
“Yeah, 100%. I think with the group being so young and inexperienced, he feels like it’s been a more natural version of himself,” Eldridge said. “I think he’s definitely come out of his shell as the season has gone on, especially toward the end.
“I don’t know if that’s the right word, but I think he’s really firing us all up. We all love him, and we know he’s got our back.”
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This article originally published at After recent ejections, is Giants manager Tony Vitello just getting no respect from MLB umps?.
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