Gabe Kapler Fired as Giants Manager After 4 Seasons, 295-248 Record with Team
Zac BonDurant/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
The San Francisco Giants will have a new manager in 2024.
Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi announced that the team had decided to relieve manager Gabe Kapler of his duties.
Alex Pavlovic @PavlovicNBCS
Here’s the statement from Farhan Zaidi. Gabe Kapler is out with a year left on his contract: pic.twitter.com/tOHDoPfo99
“After making this recommendation to ownership and receiving their approval, I met with Gabe today to inform him of our decision,” Zaidi said. “In his tenure as Giants manager, Gabe led our team through an unprecedented pandemic in 2020 and a franchise record 107 wins and postseason berth in 2021. He has been dedicated and passionate in his efforts to improve the on-field performance of the San Francisco Giants and I have tremendous respect for him as a colleague and a friend.
On behalf of the Giants organization, we wish Gabe the best of luck in his future endeavors and thank him for his contributions over the last four years.”
Kapler had a 295-248 record with the Giants, but a bulk of that success came in the 107-win, 2021 season. The team went 29-31 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, 81-81 in 2022 and are currently 78-81 in 2023.
This season’s record comes after the team was alive in the postseason race for much of the season. The Giants were 49-41 at the All-Star break but have sputtered to a 29-40 record since.
This is exacerbated by an 8-17 skid in September that pushed the team out of the playoff hunt in a race that appeared to be very winnable, with the Miami Marlins currently holding the final Wild Card spot with 82 wins.
The San Diego Padres have passed the Giants for third place in the NL West, despite sitting behind them for most of the season, and the rise of the Arizona Diamondbacks has the division looking even more difficult going forward.
The Giants will now begin the search for a new manager, with current-Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell being a potential option after his contract expires following the season.
Matt Lively of CBS Bay Area reported that Buster Posey will have a say in who the next manager is. Posey spent his entire 12-season career with the Giants, with his final season coming in 2021. He is now involved with the ownership group, and Zaidi said he “always takes his opinion into consideration.”
