The San Francisco Giants announced Tuesday that they’ve hired Gabe Kapler as their new manager. Kapler replaces Bruce Bochy, who retired after the season.
Kapler worked with Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ head of baseball operations, when both were with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Joe Espada, the Astros bench coach, and Rays bench coach Matt Quatraro were the other finalists, according to multiple reports.
The 44-year-old Kapler was fired Oct. 10 after two seasons in Philadelphia and a 161-163 record. With Bryce Harper their blockbuster acquisition, the Phillies finished 81-81 for their first non-losing season since 2012. Philadelphia finished fourth in the NL East this past season, 16 games behind the first-place Braves and eight games behind the Brewers for the second wild-card spot.
Bochy managed the Giants to World Series championships in 2010, ’12 and ’14. San Francisco went 77-85 in his final year. The club could look quite different heading into 2020 with lefty ace and 2014 World Series MVP Madison Bumgarner among baseball’s top free agents.
Kapler also interviewed with the Cubs after becoming the third consecutive Phillies manager to be fired after no more than two full seasons, joining Pete Mackanin and Ryne Sandberg.
Kapler managed just one year in the minor leagues (2007) before being tapped by the Phils for the 2018 season.
Kapler hit .268 in 12 major league seasons as an outfielder with the Boston Red Sox, Texas Rangers and four other clubs. Before managing the Phillies, he spent several years as the Dodgers’ director of player development, where he worked closely with Zaidi.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.