San Francisco Giants fans are already pushing the panic button just three games into the 2026 Major League Baseball season. The team is 0-3 and has scored just one run in those games.
Counted among those panicking fans is former San Francisco Giants pitcher Mike LaCoss. We know this because LaCoss called KNBR radio last week to rip Larry Baer, the team’s CEO, and his hiring of Tony Vitello as manager.
Vitello was hired straight out of the college ranks with no playing or coaching experience at the Major League level. Many saw it as a gamble, and with the team’s slow start, some are claiming “the Giants’ Tony Vitello gamble is already blowing up in spectacular fashion.”
Former Giants pitcher Mike LaCoss is not happy with the team
Mike LaCoss, who pitched for 14 seasons in the big leagues – six with the Giants, is another one of those Giants supporters who has already rendered a decision on the Tony Vitello era in San Francisco.
“The hiring of the college guy, don’t you think that’s kind of a slap in the face to all of the Minor League managers in professional baseball and all of the bench coaches in Major League Baseball that think about becoming a Major League manager? They just bypassed all those guys and threw this college guy in there,” LaCoss said, according to SFGate. “And of course, when you saw the look on his face in his first real press conference, you saw a totally different look on this guy’s face, man. Like he just saw his dog got run over in the driveway.”
LaCoss did add that he isn’t hoping Vitello will fail, but warned that the manager’s “word salads are going to get worse and worse” if the Giants don’t do well.
The former MLB pitcher also didn’t have much nice to say about the Giants’ CEO Larry Baer.
“They have the most hated executive in Major League Baseball still around. Until they cut the head of the snake off, the baseball gods are going to continue to punish,” he added. “That’s all I’m going to say. You’ll figure it out.”
Tony Vitello has already admitted those ‘word salads’ aren’t working
Over the weekend, Tony Vitello blamed the Giants’ poor start on a speech he gave to the players.
“I’d kind of put it on me a little bit,” Vitello told KNBR Radio last week. “I got all fire and brimstone a few days ago.”
He also told Ken Rosenthal during Saturday’s game that one of the biggest differences between coaching college and in the pros is that he “can’t talk down to guys anymore, they’re my age or it feels like they’re close to it.”
He added, “But in all honesty, I think there are just so many more people involved. There are so many more people in the stands, there are more people in the clubhouse. It truly is a manager position, not just a head coach position. But the thing I like doing more than recruiting or managing is coaching, so just trying to fill in spots when I can and just help these guys out.”
For the record, Tony Vitello is 47-years-old. Pitcher Robbie Ray, at age 34, is the Giants’ oldest player.