
Every Team Has Injuries
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Additionally, Kapler is not responsible for the significant injury problem the Phillies had to contend with this season, but that may not matter. It’s very easy to point out (or type) that the 2018 NL MVP, Christian Yelich, broke his own kneecap with a foul ball this season, and his team still made the playoffs.
However, that isn’t the issue unless the Phillies looming upper management and ownership confab decides that they’re willing to endure very poorly attended early games next spring in order to keep the core of their players as happy as they say they are publicly.
(No one will actually know what that group of players says behind closed doors in the next few days.)
Finally, Joe Maddon is available, but that is probably not as important as some people think. Gabe Kapler’s problems began in earnest when he yanked Aaron Nola too early in the very first real game he managed in 2018. After that, if anything, he became more annoying.
Immediately after that game, he defended his decision – in retrospect, he was still “very confident” about what he’d done despite a loss. Confidence has never been a problem for Kapler.
Neither was stroking the egos of his players. Who wouldn’t like to be called gritty after your obscenely expensive ball club finishes 81-81? Go back and carefully read the two longer Kapler quotations above, and ask yourself, does any of that matter?
The Fightin’ Phils may decide the money they have invested and will invest in their core players is more important than the money they could lose next spring, assuming all of those players are being honest about their annoying manager. However, they could have a fight on their hands with the people who buy the tickets for all of 2020 if they do.