Well, that downfall was fast! Two weeks after Controlling Owner Greg Johnson stated that his option for the 2024 season had already been exercised and he would definitely be back, the Giants fired Manager Gabe Kapler today. You could sense it coming as the lineups and pitching assignments descended deeper into chaos and a steady stream of negative statements from players and reports by beat writers painted a picture of apathy and dissension in the clubhouse. When President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi waffled yesterday in response to a question about Kap coming back next season, you knew Kap was as good as fired. Wouldn't surprise me at all if, after hearing FZ's comments, Kap demanded immediate clarity and got it.
Logan Webb may not be fully aware of how much gravitas his opinion has. I think he is still learning how to be a team leader but his comments had to be the match that lit the fuse of the bomb under Kapler's Manager chair. When the obvious best player on the team and the one with the longest, biggest contract speaks up like that, people in high places pay attention and some sort of action almost has to follow.
Gabe Kapler has many good qualities. He is obviously intelligent and I admire his willingness to try new innovative ideas that break with managerial orthodoxy. But baseball managers have just two essential jobs: Deploy their pitchers effectively and maintain a positive, cohesive clubhouse. In the end, Kapler failed at both of those tasks and that is why he was fired today. Using Openers and bullpen games is a great way to bolster your starting rotation but it can't replace it. When used to excess it burns out pitching staffs and creates uncertainty and confusion about roles. As the second half of this season progressed the pitching deployments became increasing chaotic. Use of openers became a form of punishment for bad starts. Bullpen games became a sign of lack of confidence in the starting pitchers even when that lack of confidence was unwarranted. It got to the point where one subpar start was punished by giving them an opener.
The lineups became increasingly erratic and feckless too while a hitting doctrine of always taking borderline pitches turned into an apparent fear of swinging the bat at all. Even casual fans could see that too many hittable pitches early in the AB's were being taken and too many batters were getting called out on strikes on borderline 3-2 pitches.
How much of this chaos is Gabe Kapler's fault we may never know. I still believe the root cause is poor performance from too many veteran players who were depended to to perform. I mean, how can Ross Stripling, to take just one example, complain about his role when in the next breath he admits he has not pitched well enough to opt out of his modest contract?
We'll do more posts on the current State of the Giants after the season ends. If FZ is not fired himself, he clearly has just one more offseason/season cycle to turn the on-field product around. It's a daunting task.
Agree with all this. I'm still hoping for Wotus.
ReplyDeleteFarhan's job is daunting because the roster is mediocre and the minors are not much stronger. He can trade what modest prospects they have, but I can't imagine they'll bring a ton and will mortgage the future. Not that much to trade from the ML roster either. I just can't see trading Harrison and to trade Luciano would sell low. So mostly what they have is low-level trades, signing free agents, and letting the youngsters play. Ohtani certainly won't sign here. Perhaps a decent starting pitcher?
One would have hoped for better after four years of the regime of the future.
If he had inherited something to work with,,,
DeleteHe did inherit something to work with. That’s why he’s able to 107 wins! Basically all the vets he inherited has career years that year combined with a few of his acquisitions doing good which led to 107 wins. The problem is that FZ discount shopped at the local outlet mall for 5 years now with nothing to do for it
DeleteGabe followed Farhan’s plan and was fired when it didn’t work. Nobody is going to believe that he went rouge and made the decision to run out an opener 4 nights a week or manage the matchups the way he did all on his own. He was a puppet much like a lot of managers these days who are expected to follow the script instead of their gut and instincts. Hard to make chicken salad out of chicken poop and that was what Farhan gave Gabe to work with. One more year and Farhan will be gone as well
ReplyDeleteManagement above Zaidi decided that they would rebuild without tanking, maybe FZ told them he could do that, maybe he thought he could, but they tried to field a competitive team while rebuilding the farm, and 2021 came along and fooled everyone. Everyone.
ReplyDeleteNow it's time to produce. They have some core, they have some prospects, they have some money to spend.
It they aren't a playoff team in 2024 what will they do? Firing FZ won't bring back these lost years.
It's a dilemma, but this is now FZ's team: just win, baby, win
I agree with the consensus in the comments. Kapler did the most he could with a mediocre roster. He is a fall guy for Zaidi. I’m curious if this decision came from ownership too (I know Zaidi said it was his call though however I’m skeptical). I do wonder if Kapler’s firing was in part to appease the vocal minority of fans who dislike the Giants current direction.
ReplyDeleteI do have a fair amount of frustration. I’ve voiced it since the start of the season but the organization is clearly headed in the right direction.
I just fear Zaidi will do too many win now moves in his year on the hot seat and set the franchise back. A mccutchen and longo trade all over again.
We'll have more to say about Zaidi today in after the season ends. I would say it's more than a vocal minority of fans who are concerned about the direction of the organization, or lack therof and right now Zaidi is not sounding like a guy who has any clue what that direction is which leaves us wondering if FZ is the right person to navigate this offseason.
DeleteIt sounds like FZ will pick the next manager despite having only 1 year left on his deal. How is that going to work? Does ownership plan to extend him another year?
DeleteFZ is absolutely not the right guy to navigate this. Already knew that but listening to his interview talking about Kapler has to convince the last remaining FZ apologists that he’s got to go. He said he has to think differently and do things differently….doesn’t sound like he knows what he’s doing. Sound literally like he doesn’t know what to do and is just learning and figuring things lit on the fly. Because his whole thing obviously didn’t work at all the last 5 years and has turned the fans against the team for the first time possibly ever.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It's easy to for FZ to say he'll do things differently. A lot harder to articulate what different looks like and how he's going to accomplish it. His comments did not sound like he did anything beyond the most superficial analysis.
DeleteLooks like I'm in the minority here but no problem with the firing and feel it was appropriate. Appears some of the same problems that plagued N
ReplyDeleteKapler in Philadelphia followed him here. In addition, he is the one that makes the line up out, makes decisions around how to handle the pitching and their coaching. Team was boring no doubt but his management of it was uninspiring as well to watch as well as to some of the players too it sounds like. FZ has tried to improve the team with some big signings but they didn't work out and went elsewhere. He's probably hit more than missed on some of his bargain deals and the farm system is better. A good off-season and a better manager and the team is back on track. That's a much shorter path then blowing it up IMO
Billy Baseball
Not surprised they let Kapler go after reading stories about the questionable club house culture. Some players rather play cards then study hitting against opposing pitcher. FZ comment that sticks with me is players took the latest Arizona series like any other series. Thier road record losing something like 30 out of the last 35 games is mind boggling. They have an average roster but some teams win a sum greater then the parts roster too. It seems like the team stopped playing for Kapler, they were 13 games above 500 at one point. FZ is not without criticism too, but if they can hit on the managerial hire, that would be a good 1st step.
ReplyDeleteAgree with many above that Kap was the "Fall Guy," seems brutal to do it with three days left in the season. But, I've seen this many times across the league in forty plus years of watching, it's just how it goes. Any thoughts on the timing?
ReplyDeleteI think Kap did well trying to polish what he had. Though, when things went sideways it sure looked like he resorted to analytics quicker than when things were going well. From my eye, I think he made it very clear that if you perform well- even fairly well (Davis, Sabol...) playing time was secure. I think a really interesting thing would be to hear his thoughts on 'bad apples...' A dude that smart in that type of physical shape probably doesn't do well with a guy like Pederson. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe they're BFF's?
Not ready to throw in the towel on Zaidi, the players have to perform and they clearly didn't for likely a number of reasons. Maybe he didn't assemble enough physically able bodies to compete but it sure looked like it was just simply that Plan C didn't work out. The whole season I was imagining, 'man, if they only had a big bopper like, say, Judge, or even Correa, to take the pressure off of guys like Davis, Flores, LMJ. Those guys are great complimentary pieces not middle of the order bats. Throw in some young guns to take the heat off and give the vets some rest- rather than rely on them to save the season (Posey's and Acuna's are extremely rare), and that's good line-up. What if Disco was healthy and Stripling was even as mildly competent as his attitude, would we have seen as many bullpen games and openers and featured starters? If Junis wasn't a gas can half the time and Manaea was as awesome as he is now from the start? On that note, FZ may want to think about retaining Manaea somehow, I don't get the Rodon 'lucky to get away unscathed' vibes there.
As usual, huge thanks to all you do Dr B! Been a fan since the Message Board days and your work helped make this season bearable!
Rob in Vancouver
after what was coming out of the clubhouse, kapler had to bounce. i don't expect anyone on the coaching staff to be retained and zaidi has had all of his faults with the team but, at the end of the it's greg johnson who has to allow zaidi to be more aggressive with trades and payroll. i think greg johnson is just as much at fault as FZ at the end of the day.
ReplyDeleteGood point, was it Johnson (Senior or Junior) or Larry Baer who decreed that the Giants would "rebuild" without cleaning house when Zaidi was hired in November 2018 after a majors-worst 5-21 in September?
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