The San Francisco Giants made a mistake hiring Gabe Kapler

After over a dozen seasons, the San Francisco Giants will head into a new season with a different manager. If their choice seems a bit surprising… that’s because it is.

It’s all about who you know, right? Despite reports this past Sunday that candidate Joe Espada was the “frontrunner” to become the San Francisco Giants new manager, on Tuesday night the Giants inked 44-year-old Gabe Kapler to a three-year deal, making him the team’s 17th skipper since the organization came to the City by the Bay.

It’s widely known that Kapler and Giants President of Baseball Operations, Farhan Zaidi, have a longtime friendship dating back to their days with the Los Angeles Dodgers, but I’m afraid their friendship has caused the usually-savvy Zaidi to make a mistake.

First of all, anyone who paid close attention to the sport over the last few seasons could see that Kapler’s, let’s say unique, antics caused more harm than good.

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Often times a tinkerer as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies for the past two seasons, Kapler developed a habit of overthinking situations, sometimes even self destructing and costing his team ball games.

And that reputation started literally within the first weekend of his managerial career.

On Opening Day of the 2018 season, with the Phillies leading the Atlanta Braves 5-0, Kapler remarkably yanked Phillies’ starter Aaron Nola, who had barely even broken a sweat. Having thrown just 68 pitches and breezing through 5 ⅓ innings, Nola sat and watched in the dugout as the Braves climbed back to win the game. Kapler burned through five relievers in that embarrassing loss and left the team’s bullpen in a horrible spot to start off the season.

After again overusing his bullpen in the very next game — granted a game the Phillies won — Kapler apparently lost his mind for a spell in Game 3 of that opening series against the Braves.

In a moment that perfectly exemplified Kapler’s trigger-happy mentality, the rookie manager attempted to deploy a Phillies’ reliever before the pitcher had ever warmed up in the bullpen. Hebrew Hammer (I swear that’s Kapler’s nickname) never told the reliever to warm up. Kapler and the Phillies would go on to lose that game 15-2, as well as the Phillies fanbase.

Now, I’m not basing Kapler’s managerial expertise off of one series, especially his very first series as a big-league manager. That would be downright petty. Plus, it’s never wise to swing at such low-hanging fruit.

But there’s more that comes with Kapler then just an amped-up muscle-man who’s quick to go to his ‘pen. It’s more of the ideology that he operates within.

After having the more traditional Bruce Bochy at the helm for 13 years, it’s obvious and understandable that the San Francisco Giants are after a more modern approach with their new manager. The days of playing small ball at AT&T Oracle Park, are over.

With MLB’s new frenzied ball and with the way the game is played now, the organization needs to upgrade not only how they do things but also how they think.

However, Kapler is far too extreme in that regard. His obsession with analytics often cause him to completely ignore the important intangible aspects of the game, resulting in him getting in the way and making that costly unnecessary move.

Statistics are very important in today’s game, that’s for certain. But numbers on a spreadsheet shouldn’t completely dictate the decisions of a manager. Not every decision or outcome can be quantified.

Consider this blurb from a USA Today article back in 2018, written by Tom Fornelli:

"And it’s not only the media or fans bothered by all of this. One anonymous Phillies player told Fanrag Sports’ Jon Heyman that the Phillies would be OK, they just “need the manager to get out of the way.” Outfielder Nick Williams went on record to complain about his playing time, saying “the computers are making the decisions.”"

As a historic city and an organization ripe with tradition from a noteworthy past, the San Francisco Giants don’t deserve nonsense like this.

To make matters worse, the Giants are currently at a crossroads, a delicate time period that will require some very crucial decision-making. Filled with older players and a middling farm system, the organization will need to decide if they’re going to completely rebuild or engage in more of a subtle retool.

Incorrect and harmful choices by the team’s manager will only make things more difficult. Flags may fly forever, and no one will ever forget the titles and all the excellent moves the front office made to obtain them, but the San Francisco Giants brass made an error on Tuesday. They simply hired the wrong guy.