KICKED TO THE KAP
Underachieving Phillies fire Gabe after two seasons of no playoffs
After being left to twist in the wind, at least publicly, for the past 11 days, Gabe Kapler has officially been “relieved of his duties” as Phillies manager, the team announced Thursday morning.
Considering the silent direction provided by team president Andy MacPhail and general manager Matt Klentak while majority owner John Middleton held an extended review of Kapler’s work, the 44-yearold Kapler should be relieved.
After all, there are eight major league managerial vacancies, with perhaps a couple of more to come. Middleton, MacPhail and Klentak are scheduled to discuss jumping into that fray at a 1 p.m. media availability Friday.
Kapler leaves with one season remaining on his deal, so it was incumbent for him to leave with a statement in which he thanked Middleton and the front office for “giving me the opportunity to lead this team.”
“We came into 2019 with very high hopes. We fell short of those, and that responsibility lies with me,” Kapler said, echoing his closing interview after a season-ending loss Sept. 29. “The next Phillies manager will inherit a team of talented, dedicated and committed players. There has been nothing more fulfilling in my professional career than the opportunity to work with the players on this team. I will forever value the relationships I developed with them. As I move on, I know that this organization is in a great spot and will see a lot of success going forward. My hope is that I helped contribute to a developing culture in the organization that flourishes in the years to come.
“I’ve come to care for this franchise and have the best wishes for this group in the future.”
Kapler went 161-163 in his two seasons. He had the team punching above its weight early in 2018 and this season had them as many as 3½ games above the eventual National League East champion Atlanta Braves near the end of May.
While the Phillies had stumbled badly down the stretch the last two months of 2018 — winning just 12 of their last 40 games to go from first to third and two games below .500 — they spent almost the entire second half of 2019 performing a slow dive from first to fourth.
The major difference is this year’s team was the nearly half-billion-dollar contractual commitment in the offseason from Middleton and his partners to expedite the latter phase of a four-year rebuild, with Bryce Harper and his 13-year, $330 million deal as the centerpiece.
Middleton stepped over his front office managers and sealed that deal himself. When it came time to pull the trigger on the manager, he did so again ... but took his time while Kapler dutifully reported to his office. Player interviews, staff meetings and heart-to-hearts later, Kapler’s fate was sealed, too.
Perhaps the injuries incurred by almost the entire bullpen, No. 2 starter Jake Arrieta and free agent Andrew McCutchen, among others, and the season-ending suspension for Odubel Herrera, had tied Kapler’s hands. But his inability to connect with enough clubhouse residents and front office denizens may ultimately have given Middleton the motivation to dismiss him.
Or perhaps Middleton has his eye set on someone else as his manager, though his initial statement wouldn’t indicate that.
“Several years ago, I promised our loyal fans that I would do everything in my power to bring a world championship team to our city,” Middleton’s statement read. “I will never waver from that commitment. During the second half of this season and continuing into this week, I have evaluated our organization extensively, a process that included talking to many people both internally and around the league. Reassuring to me was the endorsement that people outside the Phillies gave to the progress we have made recently, both organizationally and on the field. Nevertheless, with the knowledge that I have gained from my evaluation, combined with my personal reflection on the 2019 season, I have decided that some changes are necessary to achieve our ultimate objective.
“I am indebted to Gabe for the steadfast effort, energy and enthusiasm that he brought to our club, and we are unquestionably a better team and organization as a result of his contributions. With Matt leading our search for our next manager, I am confident that we will find the right person to lead us.”
There is probably a thick slice of that fanbase that wouldn’t be quite as confident, considering Kapler was Klentak’s hand-picked, datadriven communicator of the future.
“When we hired Kap, it was our goal to develop a positive, forward-thinking and collaborative culture throughout the organization that would allow us to compete with the best teams in the league year in and year out,” Klentak said in a statement. “While we have fallen short in the win column for the last two years, I can confidently say that Kap’s efforts have established a strong and sustainable foundation for this organization moving forward.”
It will be interesting to see what length the Phillies will go to in trying to land the latest Mr. Right. From an analytics standpoint, Kapler, a 12-year overachiever in the major leagues who cut his teeth in the Dodgers’ front office but had no managerial experience, was more worker than preacher. He spent long hours on the job, most on his laptop. He played the part of players’ manager, to the point of having a new sound system installed, complete with disco ball and fog machine for post-game celebrations.
He always had his players’ backs publicly, even when a more critical approach seemed in order. A pure professional when it came to dealing with the media, he nevertheless displayed an annoying habit of defending players and building up even their most mundane daily achievements, even during long stretches of poor play. There is no question that wasn’t taken lightly by Phillies fans, who never seemed to warm up to the analytics manager from California.
Hazleton native Joe Maddon, fired by the Cubs last month, is a much-mentioned presumed candidate for one of the open MLB positions, as is former Yankees skipper Joe Girardi, thought to be one of the Phillies’ favorite candidates, although the Mets might go hard after him after they canned Mickey Callahan.
Former Phillie Raul Ibanez, working in the Dodgers’ front office, has been frequently mentioned as a candidate and would seem to be an intriguing fit, but he’s reportedly been more interested in staying in his current position, able to do much of his work from his Miami home.
This search could define Klentak’s career path. The 2002 Dartmouth grad was hired in 2015 as the youngest general manager in club history. After a learning period during the first phase of this alleged rebuild, he convinced both Middleton and Co. that Kapler’s youth, energy and numerical approach to the job was far more in tune with the state of league affairs than Pete Mackanin’s old-school outlook.
But this Klentak hire will go down as a failure. A GM only gets so many of those in any sport.
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In addition to the earlier fired hitting coach John Mallee and pitching coach Chris Young, Charlie Manuel will return to his special advisory role to Klentak. Thus the new manager would get to fill his top two coaching spots . ... The Phillies also cut loose longtime lead athletic trainer Scott Sheridan and his assistant Chris Mudd . ... Among the many coaches retained is third-base coach Dusty Wathan, who should be a candidate for the manager’s spot after getting bypassed in 2017. That remains to be seen.