San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler (19) blows a bubble from the dugout during the second inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., Friday, July 7, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
MIAMI — A few minutes before the end of the Marlins’ pregame batting practice Monday, a muscular figure stepped behind the batting cage. Dressed in a black Miami cap, a teal shirt with the top two buttons undone, and white linen pants, that’s where Gabe Kapler stayed for the next hour while his former team took a lap in the cage.
His successor, Bob Melvin, was one of the first Giants to approach him, and most of the other players and staff he worked with took time out of their pregame work to get started. day and catch up with their manager for the last four years. .
“I loved it,” Kapler said a day later, leaning against the railing of the third-base dugout before the first pitch Tuesday.
In a 10-minute chat, this is all the former manager had to say about reuniting with the club he managed for four years, the second-half collapse that led to his ouster with three games remaining or his reaction to the decision. Kapler, 48, preferred to focus on the present and his new role as assistant general manager in Miami, returning to a front office role for the first time since he was the Dodgers’ director of player development.
Bay Area News Group: Tell us about life in Miami. You’ve embraced the culture of San Francisco, lived in North Beach, and biked to the ballpark. What is this lifestyle like here?
Gabe Kapler: I live in Edgewater. You know where (the Miami neighborhood) Wynwood is, where all the street art is? It’s very close. Wynwood is a little inland and Edgewater, as you might imagine, is right on the water. I am happy. I think it’s cool to be in such an international city. San Francisco is also a very international city. I would say Miami even more. You know how I feel about good food and culture. We have a lot of these things here.
CLAM: And your new role as assistant general manager under new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, what does that entail?
GK: I did a lot of everything. Rachel Balkovec is our Farm Manager, Director of Player Development. She is awesome. Really good at his job. I spent a lot of time with her and helped her navigate a new space. Lots of recruitment in different departments. We are light in some areas. We have a reduced staff in baseball operations. I spent a lot of time in Jupiter (the Marlins’ spring training home), just getting to know our major league team and staff and spending time with Rachel. Now I’m just trying to get as much exposure as possible to departments I don’t know as well.
CLAM: “Light” is not the word I would use to describe the baseball operations department in San Francisco. What are the differences between organizations?
G.K.: A baseball operations department with a large staff is larger than smaller ones by several hundred people. That’s a pretty big gap. We are on the lighter side. We’re going to build this.
CLAM: How was this profession born? You had built a Mercedes sprinter van that you planned to use to travel the continent after your redundancy.
GK: I was ready to spend the year traveling. I was pretty excited about it. I had maps drawn up. Digital maps, that is to say as if I had things mapped. The plan was Chile. These were my first plans. Peter was an intern with the Rays when I was a player, but we didn’t know each other at all. We were introduced by common people. We spoke on the phone several times and he asked me if I wanted to come to Miami and talk more. I said, sure. I didn’t really expect it to turn out to be anything other than a good conversation that might lead to something. But whatever. I was invested to the extent that I wanted to know what was on his mind and share what was on my mind.
I just think it was a really good choice. I think he’s a very good leader and a very warm and intelligent leader with a really interesting background in Tampa. It’s a really cool market and, in many ways, unique. It’s a very unique market. We have a few writers. For me, spending a lot of my time in Los Angeles, then a lot of my time in Philadelphia, then a lot of my time in San Francisco, to get to this point, it’s just a little bit different. More relaxed.
CLAM: Why not take a year off? You have many interests outside of baseball and probably a lot of financial flexibility.
GK: Good question. Part of me doesn’t know why. Baseball competition is very addictive. It’s funny. It’s a fun world. It’s fun to think about how to win. That’s at least part of the draw. Part of the draw was Peter and his vision. Part of it comes from my own desire and enthusiasm about wanting to win in the long run.
CLAM: Would you like to manage again someday?
GK: I’m open to that. I am not in a hurry. I think it’s possible to continue to see baseball from all angles. I just think it doesn’t matter what makes me a more complete and experienced baseball executive or manager at any given time. I don’t – yeah, let’s put it this way: I’m in a very relaxed space in terms of what happens in two, three years. It’s good for me to be here and invest where I am.
