Is it time for the Giants to fire Tony Vitello? Yes.

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For starters, it’s a red flag that we’re asking this question — and a lot of people, media and otherwise, are asking.

The Giants are underperforming drastically, spending much of the season trailing first place in the NL West by double digits. This is a textbook time for a manager to take a seat on baseball’s most uncomfortable piece of furniture — the hot seat.

And that’s factoring in recent events, where the team raised the traditional white flag of surrender on the season, becoming sellers at the trade deadline. It certainly doesn’t help the vibe when you’re forced to deal Luis Arraez, a likely batting champ and clubhouse/fan favorite.

(How popular was he? Former Giant turned broadcaster F. P. Santangelo asked on Twitter if a player has ever won the Willie Mac Award after being traded.)

The result, we predict here, will be increased scrutiny on Vitello, who has not impressed. Full disclosure: although I believe I have met and spoken with every Giants manager since Frank Robinson at Candlestick, I’ve never met Vitello.

But we are all reading his quotes and they’ve been a wild ride on the Tilt-o-whirl. That began right away with the weird first press conference where he went off an a tangent that seemed to be criticizing reporters for the getting the scoop that he was the new manager before he was ready to relay it.

But it isn’t just the losing record. If you’re firing a guy in the first year of a three-year contract you have to make a case.

So let us count the ways:

First, it is not getting better.

The original take was that things were a little rocky at the start, but once the former college coach took a spin around the league, he and the team would settle in.

Nope.

They lost the first three games out of the gate and haven’t seen .500 since. You’ll recall that Bob Melvin (acknowledgement of bias. I am a BoMel fan) was fired last year for finishing .500.

There are some grim stats here if you can bear to read them. As recently as July 26 they were 22.5 games off first place, the farthest back so far this year. And Sunday’s loss in San Diego put them 18 games under .500, the worst of the season.

And the loyal Giants fans are noticing and speaking up. During Tuesday’s stinker of an 8-2 loss to Milwaukee, NBC Sports Bay Area reported, “at one point in the early innings a small smattering of boos cascaded down from the upper levels.”

Put a pin in that quote, because we’re going to come back to it.

Second, members of the Giants orbit know Vitello is struggling and are trying to school him.

When Vitello was introduced last October, GM Buster Posey said he wanted the University of Tennessee hire to “ruffle some feathers,” adding that, “For me, there’s an argument to be made that we’re lacking that severely right now.”

Yeah, Vitello didn’t get off to a great start with that. Back on May 2, there was one of those crazy calls that only seem to happen in baseball. You can watch the video.

What happened was Heliot Ramos crushed a fly ball to right-center at Tropicana Field. It was a home run. Except it hit a catwalk and dropped down for an easy catch for the outfielder. Incredibly, it was ruled an out.

It was outrageous. And worse, the umpires examined video and UPHELD the call of no home run.

The Giants went ballistic. Or some of them did. Pitching coach Frank Anderson was ejected right away, followed by pitcher Adrian Houser.

Vitello? He waved his arms a bit but no feathers appeared ruffled. Maybe he was mentally composing a sternly-worded letter.

Lately it looks like he’s gotten the note, because he was up and out of the dugout last week when an umpire ruled that Willy Adames pushed a runner off the second base bag to tag him out.

That’s not how it looked, but the infuriating part was that the umpiring crew refused to get a second opinion from the video.

Vitello put up enough of a fuss to be tossed from the game, but Giant broadcaster and conscience of the franchise Mike Krukow thought his response was tepid at best.

"I thought he should have been out there at second base, you know, pulling the base out of the dirt and throwing it at Lance Barrett, the head umpire on that crew. I really do."

And that was followed by a story in The Athletic where Ron Washington, who managed in MLB for ten years, publically advised Vitello “to get your money’s worth,” when you are thrown out of a game. Make a scene, create a performance, because Washington said, “You’re going to have to pay the fine regardless.”

Their point is that they feel the umpires are “bullying” Vitello out of lack of respect. And he’s got to raise a ruckus to show he won’t stand for it.

Fine, but we’re over 100 games into the season. We’re waiting.

Third, there are genuine questions if he’s in over his head.

The Pride Night debacle could not have been handled any more poorly. Three pitchers decided to protest the Gay Pride-themed night by writing Bible verses on their caps. A fourth wore a standard Giants hat but went out of his way to say he didn’t agree with “it,” meaning Pride Night.

The result was that four — frankly marginal — players hijacked an event the Giants have been holding since 2021, undercutting team support for the LGBT community going back 30 years. It needlessly alienated loyal fans, not to mention a large part of the city of San Francisco.

Attempts by the team to quell the backlash backfired and the ill will persists to this day. Surely this could have been avoided. After the fact we learned that the players all could have worn their regular hat if they wanted.

What, you might wonder, did the team manager do?

Well, he said afterward, “I didn’t have any idea that anyone was going to write on their hat.”

You know, in a world where the president of the United States overturns a red card in the World Cup, these kinds of political/sport incidents are going to come up. And if you’re in charge you should know what’s going on and be ready and able to respond.

It’s a tough job. But that’s the job.

Fourth, there are legitimate baseball questions.

I had a conversation recently with a guy who is friends with a director of scouting for a Major League team. The scout said there’s a reason why teams sign so many pitchers out of high school.

Because, he said, college coaches are notorious for over-using and burning out their pitchers. They figure, I’ve only got this guy for a couple of years, so I’m going to get everything I can out of him.

Early in the year beat reporters were noticing that when a pitcher was struggling, Vitello’s staff (Anderson, the pitching coach was also at Tennessee) was slow to get someone up in the bullpen to relieve him.

But the really insightful call-out came from NBC Sports Bay Area analyst and former pitcher Shawn Estes.

A month ago, when reliever Keaton Winn relieved Logan Webb in the ninth and gave up three runs to turn the game into a 4-3 loss, Estes went on an epic post-game rant.

Winn, he said, doesn’t deserve the blame. This was his third straight appearance and fourth in the previous five games. He had pitched 24 hours earlier in Chicago and then was tossed back into the fire.

“This guy’s arm is tired,” Estes said. “His arm was beat. This game was lost when the inning started, based on the way it was managed, and I hate to say that.”

Five days later Winn went on the disabled list with elbow pain.

So, lesson learned? Nope.

The Athletic’s excellent Andrew Baggarly has been on this from the start, noting how Vitello left struggling pitchers on the mound and failed to get relief pitchers up and throwing in time.

And then, a week ago, in a 16-3 blowout win by the Giants at home, Baggarly points out that the Brewers, aware that the game was clearly over, had their first baseman lob in pitches to finish off the game. And then, well, lets let Baggs cook:

The Giants had several position player candidates who could’ve done the same in the top of the ninth. Instead, they brought in right-hander Keaton Winn.

The same Keaton Winn who had thrown the previous night. The same Keaton Winn who landed on the injured list earlier in the year when his elbow flared up due to overuse. It’s not as if the Giants had a travel day coming up, either. They were beginning a series in San Diego the following night. Using Winn to finish a 13-run game ensured that he wouldn’t be available the following day.

There’s more, and I’d encourage you to read the full story here. Don’t miss the part where Houser, in the bullpen, saw that the starter was struggling and “had taken his own initiative to start getting ready.”

The Giants don’t lead the league in injured pitchers — I checked, they’re about in the middle of the pack. But the use of the staff should be considered.

Fifth, somethin’ ain’t right about this team.

It’s always hard to say how much a manager affects a team. Is he fiery? Or cerebral? Sneaky smart? Analytics based?

But the skipper’s influence shows in the way teams play. This group just looks sloppy. They have forgotten how many outs there are. They’ve failed to cover second base. They’ve been picked off.

Is that the manager? You tell me. But we do know that good teams don’t do that.

Sixth — and this is where the nitty meets the gritty — attendance is key.

Until COVID I don’t think any of us realized how important ticket sales are to Major League teams. Tickets are a steady, reliable source of income, kind of like what classified ads used to be to newspapers.

And you saw what happened to newspapers when they lost that steady, reliable income stream.

The Giants are deeply devoted to getting folks in those seats, even if it costs them. As SF Gate points out, they’re offering cut-rate seats with benefits.

Bleacher seats are going for $8 and you can sit at swanky club level for the low, low price of $20. And if you’d like a kicker, here’s a $19 ticket that includes a beer.

It’s important because of the revenue, but also for the brand, The Giants are now the Bay Area’s only MLB team and want to showcase their very cool ballpark with full houses.

The loyal fans have held up pretty well so far. The team may still draw three million fans.

But those boos are ominous. It’s not just this year. It won’t be long before the team is pitching you to buy season tickets for next year.

Do fans want to see more of the same next season? Doesn’t Posey, and the ownership, have to show that they recognize they have to make a change?

It looks like pulling Vitello out of the college game was a bigger gamble that we thought. Fine, but if that’s true what’s the upside of leaving him in the job for another year, or the rest of the season?

Seventh, up until recently there was a problem with replacing Vitello.

Who would take over? Can you imagine what a mess it would be to conduct a search of Major League Baseball for a new manager? Doing that during the season would be chaos.

But about a month ago the Giants hired popular, experienced Gary Pettis to be third base coach.

Pettis is pretty much ideal. He was born and raised in the Bay Area, coached in the Big Leagues for 22 seasons and worked under both Dusty Baker and Washington when they were managers. In addition, Pettis played 11 seasons and won five gold gloves.

There’s also Washington, the veteran defensive guru and former manager.

Respect would not be a problem for either of them.

Is it a big move? Without a question. It’s just that making bold moves is great. But sometimes to you have to un-make bold moves.

There’s that old quote from North Dallas Forty about professional sports and a player’s lament to management: “Every time I say it’s game, you say it’s a business. Every time I say it is a business, you say it’s a game.”

Let’s settle that right now.

Ask Arraez. It’s a business. A cold-hearted, ruthless business.

The Giants need to act like it.

Contact C.W. Nevius at cwnevius@gmail.com. Threads and Twitter: @cwnevius