Gabe Kapler is Giants’ choice to replace Bochy as manager.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Giants are replacing a legend with a lightning rod.
In a move that comforted baseball boss Farhan Zaidi but unsettled many fans, the Giants hired Gabe Kapler on Tuesday night as the successor to Bruce Bochy, who had retired after 13 seasons and three World Series championships.
Kapler, who’s getting a threeyear deal, will be introduced at an Oracle Park news conference at noon Wednesday.
“I’m just really looking forward to our fan base and people in this organization getting to know Gabe the way I know him,” Zaidi said in an evening conference call. “As they do, I’m very
confident it’ll be a strong, positive and lasting relationship.”
Fans vented on social media when it became known that Kapler was a finalist along with Joe Espada and Matt Quatraro, bench coaches for the Astros and Rays, respectively, because of how Kapler managed the Phillies and handled two incidents when he was the Dodgers’ farm director involving women who made assault accusations against minorleaguers.
Zaidi, the Dodgers’ general manager at the time, was quick to address the 2015 incidents in the conference call, saying he had reflected on how they were handled during the interview process and accepted part of the blame.
“I realize the biggest mistake was asking the wrong questions,” Zaidi said. “We asked, ‘What do we have to do?’ rather than, ‘What is the right thing to do?’ I can only speak for myself, I’m truly sorry from my perspective I didn’t ask the right questions and ask things appropriately.”
Zaidi had known Kapler much longer than the others and said he was seeking “somebody who was capable of building trust and relationships with the players and front office. In my experience with Gabe, as we went through the interview process and got to know more about him, it became clear he was best to execute on that.”
Kapler, 44, a fitness fanatic, enjoyed a 12year majorleague career with the Tigers, Rangers, Red Sox, Brewers and Rays after being taken in the 57th round of the 1995 amateur draft out of Moorpark College in Southern California. He was born in Hollywood and grew up in the San Fernando Valley.
Kapler managed the Phillies to a 161163 record in two seasons, and they fired him with a year left on his contract.
Phillies managing partner John Middleton left Kapler hanging for nearly two weeks after the season before overriding his general manager, Matt Klentak, and deciding to let the manager go, according to reports.
Middleton pointed to the Phillies’ September records of 820 and 1216 during Kapler’s two seasons, knocking them out of the playoff hunt both years. They ended 2019 as alsorans despite 17 homers in August and September by their big offseason acquisition, Bryce Harper.
Klentak told The Chronicle earlier Tuesday that Kapler’s tenure in Philadelphia “was successful in a lot of ways” but “we didn’t win enough games.”
“When you make some of the investments that we made and finish 8181 and have two tough Septembers in a row, sometimes this happens,” Klentak said at the GM meetings in Scottsdale. “Kap brought a lot of good to our organization in those two years and really helped us make up a lot of ground in the industry. I’m a big supporter of him. He’s a big friend, and I’m rooting” for him.
Kapler won over his players despite a shaky start. On Opening Day in 2018, he stunned his team and the fans with an analytically based decision to remove starter Aaron Nola after just 68 pitches when Nola had held the Braves to one run on three hits over 51⁄3 innings. The Phillies lost 85.
“Kap certainly had his challenges, particularly in Year 1,” Klentak said. “There were some pretty highprofile mistakes early, but he learned from it. I think that’s probably been a case for a lot of firsttime managers. There’s a lot to learn.”
The Giants know firsthand that Kapler improved as he went. In early May, his Phillies outscored the Giants 368 in a fourgame sweep at Citizens Bank Park.
Zaidi said he received input from Giants’ players, owners and his colleagues in the baseballoperations department and also received unsolicited calls from people in the Phillies’ organization who endorsed Kapler.
Kapler was a teammate of Giants third baseman Evan Longoria in Tampa, along with catcher Stephen Vogt, who’s a free agent, and is close with center fielder Kevin Pillar. Asked whether the owners signed off on Kapler, Zaidi said, “They were very supportive of the recommendations we made.”
The incidents with the Dodgers made many Giants fans hope the new manager would be someone other than Kapler, who initially tried to resolve the cases on his own.
Each case involved females, including a 17yearold, who reported allegations of assault to Kapler. She later told police she had been sexually assaulted, which she did not initially tell Kapler. The other woman, a hotel housekeeper, alleged sexual assault by a Dodgers minorleaguer from the start.
Kapler reported the allegations up the Dodgers’ chain of command and alerted team counsel, as he was supposed to do, but the Dodgers drew criticism for not reporting the incidents to Major League Baseball.