The highest paid MLB managers make around $8 million per season, but top assistants like pitching and hitting coaches usually make six figures.

The advent of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) money has also made playing college baseball more lucrative, even if payouts lag well behind their football and basketball counterparts. There's also the fact that top-level NCAA programs are investing in technology.

"We have one of the better pitching labs on the West Coast," Bloomquist said. "I think it would rival a lot of professional organizations. From a data standpoint, it's all trickled down to the college level."

After retiring as a player, Bloomquist worked in the Arizona Diamondbacks' front office before getting hired by the Sun Devils. His pitching coach — Jeremy Accardo — spent 18 years in professional baseball as a player and coach.

Bloomquist said that MLB teams have become more comfortable trusting NCAA programs to develop professional talent instead of taking the risk of drafting an unproven 18-year-old straight out of high school. He added that it's probably one of the reasons that MLB felt comfortable cutting 40 minor league affiliates back in 2020.

In the 2025 MLB draft, 56 college players were selected in the top 90 picks.

"They say: 'We'll just watch them in college in three years at a Power 4 program, see how their development goes and then we'll go get them'," says Bloomquist.

Georgia baseball coach Wes Johnson is another coach who has bounced between MLB and NCAA with success at both levels. He was hired as the pitching coach for the Minnesota Twins and had a strong three-and-a-half-year run between 2019 and 2022, before going back to the college game.

He helped develop 2025 NL Cy Young Award winner Paul Skenes as LSU's pitching coach before landing the head job with the Bulldogs.

Johnson said there's little doubt that the college and pro games have never been more similar, but added that there are still real differences for players and coaches.

The biggest is the schedule.

In college, the condensed schedule makes all 56 regular-season games feel huge. A three-game losing streak is the end of the world. In professional baseball, it's just a small bump in the road.

"With the Twins, we played 33 spring games, then played 162 in the season and then made the playoffs," Johnson said. "It's every day there. That's the hardest challenge you have when you go from college to the big leagues. We won 101 games in 2019 (in the regular season). That means we only lost 61 games.

"But that's the most I've ever lost in my life in one year."

Bloomquist agreed that the schedule is very different. He said age is a factor as well.

"There's a different style in college than there is in professional baseball — to an extent that's accurate," Bloomquist said. "There's an intensity in college, motivating 18 — to 20-year-olds, as opposed to guys who are making $20 million. Can you relate to those guys in pro ball?"

San Francisco Giants third baseman Matt Chapman played in college at California State, Fullerton before becoming a five-time Gold Glove winner in the big leagues. Even though there are some differences — like many more native Spanish speakers in pro ball — he wasn't worried about Vitello's transition.

"Winning baseball (games) looks the same," Chapman said.

"It's pitching and defense, knowing how to run the bases and then managing personalities. He has a lot of experience with that.

"There will be a learning curve in some areas. You just can't fully know how to run a Major League clubhouse unless you've been in one. But it's not foreign to him. He's a baseball guy."