Kapler rallies ‘round his players to an uncertain end

PHILADELPHIA >> His players coming up short in the clutch once again, his strangely placed handshake with team owner John Middleton in the dugout after the last out completed, Gabe Kapler turned and went boldly into the future.

There would be no announcement on this Sunday from his bosses as to whether or not his walk would take him through another season of Phillies baseball, no outward confirmation from him as to whether his tenure as manager here is as over as most people would seem to believe.

As for non-verbal indicators, well, there was manager’s visible emotion to consider.

Settling into the club’s interview chair for possibly the final time, Kapler’s scripted take was that this was neither the time nor the place for any speculation about his future.

He said it with a waver in his voice and slight show of defiance underscoring his words.

“The emotion is being proud of our players,” Kapler said after his Phillies proudly lost the season finale 4-3 to the Miami Marlins, thus finishing at 81-81 for an eighthstraight non-winning season.

But he was proud enough to launch into an impassioned, pro-player speech.

“How could I not be proud of Brad Miller?” Kapler said of the Phillies’ early-season purchase from the Yankees. “In the middle of the season, he was just left for dead. Now he walks away with two home runs off Max Scherzer (earlier in the week) and two home runs today off a lefty. He gets pinch-hit for all the time and we leave him in there and he rewards us with a home run. There’s so many guys I can point to like that.”

And so over the next several minutes, he did.

“I was blessed with highcharacter, high-quality, players and men,” Kapler said. “What you’re seeing right now, what emotionally you’re seeing, is me feeling the power of that.”

Kapler had talked about the clubhouse feeling in the ninth inning, as Rhys Hoskins and Maikel Franco — both coming off rather lousy seasons — respectively got on base to rev the crowd up for one last winning rally.

And Kapler, with limited pinch-hitting choices, saw Andrew Knapp strike out to end the season.

That didn’t diminish the pride, though.

“The culture in that clubhouse was outstanding,” Kapler said. “Don’t take my word for it. Ask the players about it. Every one of them to a man will tell you that they are brothers. They fought for each other all season long. There was some incredible adversity. They got kicked a lot of times. They kept getting back up and they kept fighting despite the circumstances.” Kapler didn’t stop there. He took time to behold the talents and effort levels of so many players who joined the club late in the wake of injuries, or because general manager Matt Klentak recognized too late that the depth wasn’t as deep as he might have guessed. That done, Kapler rushed into praise of his coaches, every one of them, including embattled pitching coach Chris Young, who was indicted by the critics after most of the bullpen and a good chunk of so-so starters came up lame this season.

What Kapler would not discuss is whether Klentak had scheduled either a permanent exit interview or meeting to discuss next season’s team with him.

“That’s not something we’ve talked about,” said Kapler, who has one remaining year on his contract. “It’s definitely not a conversation I need to have right now in this room. It’s a private conversation. My job is to focus on managing the Phillies even after Game 162 and I will do that to the best of my ability.”

For his part, Klentak was seen briefly visiting the coaches office and striding through the clubhouse before the game. Oddly, his predecessor management team, the currently unemployed Ruben Amaro Jr. and Pat Gillick, took in a brief part of the game from the press box.

Middleton was also there, but his presence at game’s end in the dugout shaking hands seemed more out of place, considering the circumstances.

Meanwhile, the players Kapler so loves were lining up to defend him in the clubhouse. That included a couple of popular guys who played only one season under him.

“As of now, I expect to see him back here,” J.T. Realmuto said. “We feel like he’s done a great job for us. He gets the guys to play hard. We all love playing for him. He’s been our manager all year and nobody’s had anything to say about it. We’ve obviously had a rough last couple of weeks and fell out of contention. But for me, Gabe’s our manager. He’s a guy that this clubhouse really respects.”

“It hasn’t been his fault,” Bryce Harper added. “He’s had some tough decisions he had to make, bullpenwise, lineup-wise; not having your leadoff guy, not having your set-up guy, things like that. A lot of guys have been thrown into the fire this year from Double-A and Triple-A. It’s just how the season went. It’s part of it.

“We’re going to build on that next year, hopefully. I love our staff. I enjoy our staff, I enjoy playing for our staff. They’ve made me better each day and I appreciate that.”

Even before those endorsements, Kapler was known as a players manager. He was also criticized for being too soft on certain players at times.

Of course, he doesn’t see things that way. And the criticisms had no visible impact on the way he stuck by and promoted said players.

“What’s playing into this, is me thinking about our players and what they stepped up to try and accomplish,” Kapler said. “I love managing that group of players. I love working with that staff. Love working with this front office. They give me all sorts of autonomy. I have felt supported by our ownership group. Our ownership group has done everything in their power to put a winning product on the field. I’m proud to be a Philadelphia Phillie and will do it as long as I’m able.”

To that end, as of Sunday evening, there was no Matt Klentak press conference scheduled for the immediate future.

The story of the Phillies’ 2019 season has been written.

The story of Gabe Kapler’s tenure as their manager seems to have one chapter left undone.

“I talk to Matt every single day,” Kapler said, “so Matt and I will talk with 100 percent certainty. I’m not sure what that will be about, but we discuss everything under the sun every single day.”