MLB purportedly cleared Kapler

Source: Investigation results agree with Giants manager’s statements

Gabe Kapler’s public statements about alleged assaults by Dodgers minorleaguers in 2015 while he was in charge of their farm system square with the results of Major League

Baseball’s investigation, according to a league source with direct knowledge of the proceedings.

The Chronicle’s source, who is not identified because Major League Baseball typically does not disclose the inner workings of its investigations, said that the new Giants manager was cleared of any wrongdoing after an exhaustive review in 2017 that included dozens of interviews and thousands of documents.

In the first incident, a 17yearold partying with two players was beaten by two women, and one of the players recorded a video of it and uploaded it to Snapchat. Kapler attempted to arrange a meeting with the players and the victim for a facetoface apology. The teen later told police one of the players sexually assaulted her; Kapler has said he was unaware of that accusation at the time.

“The first one, it was reported to Kapler that two other girls had assaulted her and Kapler tried to handle it,

thinking that it wasn’t a sexual assault,” the league source said. “Later, the victim told police she had been sexually assaulted by a Dodgers player, but the sum and substance is that he didn’t know he was dealing with sexual assault and was trying to defuse the situation, which at the time was a player witnessing two girls attacking another girl, and later the facts came to light.”

The league source said documents support that timeline, and Kapler has said, including during his introductory news conference Wednesday, that he realizes he mishandled things by suggesting the girl meet with the players, an offer she declined.

MLB did not institute its policies addressing domestic violence and sexual assault charges until later that year. The second incident happened after the policies were in place. At the same Glendale, Ariz., hotel where the first incident occurred, a player was accused of sexually assaulting a housekeeper. When Kapler learned of the allegation through the hotel manager, he reported it to his superiors. The team, however, failed to alert MLB, as required.

“My overall impression is that he’s getting treated a little unfairly here,” the league source said. “I think if it was today, the Dodgers would have handled it differently, I guarantee that, but Kapler reported it upward. Once he’s done that, it’s his bosses’ job to deal with it. That’s my personal feeling.”

Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was the Dodgers’ general manager at the time, and on Wednesday at Kapler’s introduction at Oracle Park, Zaidi addressed his involvement in how the situations were handled. Like Kapler, Zaidi said he learned from the process and should have done more to support the victims.

The league source said he doesn’t know Kapler except in the context of the investigation but said that after reading all available emails, “He comes across as an intelligent and caring individual, and we saw everything. We didn’t view that he was insensitive to victims of sexual assault or violence or that he was trying to cover up conduct of players, that was not our conclusion at all.

“We spent a massive amount of time on this, and it was done at the level of detail and specificity that we would use for a domesticviolence investigation or any other investigation, the full boat. And he was cleared. Kapler didn’t violate any policies.”