Kapler’s Giants debut finally arrives in L.A.
Manager expecting to juggle players to challenge starladen Dodgers roster
Gabe Kapler knows about rivalries. He played in a celebrated Red SoxYankees era as a member of Boston’s 2004 World Series team, its first championship since 1918.
Now he’ll experience another legendary rivalry beginning Thursday night when his Giants play the Dodgers to begin what figures to be an amazingly bizarre 2020 season.
Kapler’s debut as Giants manager will come four months after it initially had been scheduled, courtesy of the coronavirus pandemic, and he’ll guide a team that’s not expected to contend even in a condensed 60game schedule.
Thanks to an accelerated Spring Training 2.0, in which the usual six weeks of preparation were reduced to three, Kapler admittedly didn’t have time to think about his place in the GiantsDodgers rivalry, which dates to New York and has flourished on the West Coast for six decades.
Kapler’s focus was hurriedly prepping his team while keep
ing his troops healthy, and he’s encouraged approaching Clayton Kershaw’s first pitch at spectatorless Dodger Stadium. Johnny Cueto will pitch for the Giants.
“I think we are healthier than a lot of us expected,” said Kapler, a former Dodgers farm director who was hired by the Giants in November to replace Bruce Bochy. “Trying to ramp up very quickly is a challenge. The best way to keep pitchers ready is a nice, long, slow rampup. The same can be true to some degree for position players.
“While we didn’t have that, we started the process of building the players up before we got to Oracle Park. I think we’ve done a nice job, relatively speaking, of keeping the group healthy.”
That’s particularly true on the pitching side, but corner infielders Evan Longoria (right oblique strain) and Brandon Belt (sore right heel) are unavailable, and another infielder, Yolmer Sanchez (tight back), is questionable after exiting Tuesday night’s exhibition against the A’s.
Kapler will not run his pitching staff as Bochy did the past 13 years. Yes, Kapler has at least four traditional starters — Cueto, Jeff Samardzija, Kevin Gausman and Drew Smyly — but Kapler won’t hesitate to buck tradition and use his conga line of relievers, all of whom seem healthy except nonroster player Trevor Cahill, whose fingernail issue prevents him from throwing effective breaking pitches.
In two exhibitions against the A’s, both San Francisco wins, Giants pitchers dominated. Eighteen were used in 18 innings, and they surrendered just four runs on six hits with 20 strikeouts.
“I can tell you I’m especially pleased with our ability to come out of these last two games with our arms healthy and fresh and their volumes built to what we expected them to be,” Kapler said.
“I don’t think we have anybody ready to go six, seven innings, but what we do have is relievers built up to go up and down, we have relievers built up to go multiple innings, we have bulk pitchers to give us the length we need throughout the game.
“The combination of those things, especially when we’re so focused on pitching without those starters being built up, is really important right now.”
Without Longoria or Belt, the Giants used Wilmer Flores, Will Wilson and Abiatal Avelino at third base against the A’s and Pablo Sandoval, Darin Ruf and Joe McCarthy at first base.
“We could see Flores at third and Pablo at first,” Kapler said. “We could also see Flores at first and another configuration that has Sanchez at third as well. Ruf is a nice option for us at first if he’s not DHing, and I think Joe McCarthy has done a really nice job of managing the bats and growing at first as well. We have a lot of options.”
The Dodgers are the class of the National League, with seven straight division titles but no World Series championship since 1988. The lefthanded Kershaw is sure to see a bundle of righthanded hitters coming to the plate for the Giants, who pale in comparison to the mighty Dodgers, who have three former MVPs: Kershaw, Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger.
Showing the difference in direction of the teams, while the restructuring Giants have not acquired an elite free agent the past two winters, the goforit Dodgers not only traded for Betts in February but on Wednesday handed him a 12year extension worth $365 million.
The Giants are moving at their own pace while waiting for top prospects to develop, and Kapler was chosen by president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, himself a former Dodgers GM, to help usher in a new era.
“There’s going to be a lot of firsttime Opening Days,” said Kapler, who played 12 years in the majors. “The experience without fans in the stands is going to be so different for these firsttime coaches and for many players who may be making their first Opening Day roster.”