Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Kapler appointment made official
42-year-old will be introduced as manager this week
PHILADELPHIA » The Phillies made official their managerial choice of Gabe Kapler Monday, giving the 42-year-old former outfielder and bodybuilding cover boy his first major league bench job.
Kapler, who will leave his position as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ director of player development, is renowned as a bright baseball mind who is of a like mind with Phillies general manager Matt Klentak on the place of advanced stats and sabermetrics in the daily operations of a baseball club.
He also was a ballplayer. Kapler had a 12-year professional career and played with six MLB teams, finishing up his career with Tampa Bay in 2010. He went to spring training with the Dodgers in 2011 but was released at the end of camp and moved his career in a different direction.
Kapler’s playing career came in two tenures, since in 2007 he took a job managing the Boston Red Sox’s Class A affiliate, the Greenville Drive. But he stated then he found himself missing the action, and hooked on with Milwaukee as
a backup outfielder the following season.
To date, it is Kapler’s only professional experience as a manager in the states.
Kapler played so well he was considered a candidate as Comeback Player of the Year in the National League in 2008. He would go on to finish his career as a .268 hitter with 82 career home runs and 386 RBIs. Despite the so-so power numbers, Kapler for years appeared literally to be a baseball strong man.
The internet is alive with bodybuilder buff shots of Kapler, which may or may not have played a part in his post-playing career track.
“I’m equal parts honored, humbled and excited by the opportunity with the Phillies, an elite franchise in a city rich in history, tradition,
sports excellence and with amazingly passionate fans,” Kapler said in a statement. “I believe there is no better place to build a winning environment, and I take that task very seriously.”
While working with the Dodgers last spring, Kapler became involved in a bit of a controversy with Terry Francona’s son Nick, an Afghanistan war vet who was working in the Dodgers’ player development department.
Francona was dismissed from his position and lodged a discrimination complaint that it came after he sought help from an organization that treats veterans for “invisible wounds of war.” The Dodgers tried to settle the case twice, but Kapler was later cleared in a league review.
After his baseball career ended, Kapler coached the Israeli national baseball team, did some television analyst work with Fox Sports and worked in
a business with a start-up tech firm. Then the Dodgers brought him into their front office in 2014.
The next spring, Kapler had brushes with players over his institution of a dietary policy cutting out processed, unhealthy foods and essentially instituting an organic menu at spring training.
In a story by the Orange County Register in 2015 detailing Kapler’s work on the dietary side of spring training, Dodgers president
Stan Kasten said of Kapler, “Gabe is ferocious about everything he does – but especially this.”
In a statement released Monday, Klentak said, “Gabe has a track record of leadership, winning, progressive thinking and working with young players, and we fully believe that he is the right person to guide this organization into the future.”
Kapler is expected to be introduced in a press conference later this week.