Photo by Ryan McGeary/KNBR
The pitchforks that greeted Gabe Kapler in San Francisco on Wednesday were for reasons entirely unrelated to the baseball field. Allegations of sexual assault that were mishandled. Multiple cases, that is, that were not immediately reported to police.
And yet, the baseball reasons for being skeptical of the 39th manager in Giants history exist, too.
Kapler, introduced at a news conference that focused on his 2015 missteps with the Dodgers, had less important missteps with the Phillies, who fired him after two seasons in which he went 161-163. Despite signings like Bryce Harper, Kapler could not take Philadelphia to the playoffs and ostracized himself from the fanbase almost immediately, getting booed his very first week in 2018, when his overmanagement of the bullpen led to his trying to bring in a reliever who hadn’t warmed up.
Kapler, hailed by Farhan Zaidi for his communication skills and analytically inclined mind, said he has learned to focus more on the former and less on the latter from his failed stint.
“I think one of the things that I personally learned in my time in Philadelphia is how to blend the information that we have at our fingertips as decision-makers in this sport, with some of the confidence-building that goes on with our players,” Kapler said at Oracle Park in an hour-long news conference. “And very specifically, sometimes the smallest strategic in-game decision or baseball decision doesn’t trump instilling a lot of confidence in a player that has to go up to the batter’s box and have that confidence so that he can get off his athletic swing, or the pitcher on the mound that can deliver his best pitch and do so fluidly without maybe being bogged down by some of the numbers and some of that information.”
Things Gabe Kapler learned in Philly:
•Use all the tools available to you
•Confidence is key
•Analytics can’t tell you everything pic.twitter.com/SWlR7h9uBN— KNBR (@KNBR) November 13, 2019
If the players felt overwhelmed, they played like it, a team that opened last season with the sixth-highest payroll and World Series hopes finishing 81-81.
Kapler acknowledged the issues that abbreviated his time in Philadelphia, never ingratiating himself to the fans and players complaining about the overabundance of advanced analytics that were thrown at them. Yet, Zaidi noted several convincing endorsements from Phillies players and management, some of which he said were unsolicited, as evidence he could improve in his second go-round.
“I’m getting a job very quickly after having some pretty public issues and some things in Philadelphia that didn’t go according to plan, and I don’t take that lightly,” said Kapler, who was fired Oct. 10. “And through the course of this process I’ve gotten to know a lot of great people in and outside of the organization that I know are going to be helpful in me learning from the mistakes that I made in Philadelphia and applying them here in San Francisco.”
Kapler acknowledged the pressure that came in the Philadelphia market, saying it should serve to help him with the pressure that comes with inheriting a team that’s won three titles this decade.
He will need all the help he can get in a job in which he admitted he’s starting in a hole. The fanbase is not on his side. Buster Posey and returning third-base coach Ron Wotus were in the audience, showing their early support. The fans’ pitchforks will not be returned to the closet.
“So far I have not been a popular hire,” Kapler said. “… I don’t think I know everything. I don’t think I’ve made every perfect step. I’ve made a lot of mistakes. But I think one of the things that you’ll find out about me is that I’m pretty good at making adjustments.
“So when I find out there’s a reason that maybe this isn’t the most popular hire, I want to know what those reasons are, and I want to get better at it. And so I just dig in and roll up my sleeves and get to work.”