SAN FRANCISCO – As he finished a lengthy session with reporters Friday afternoon, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi retreated to the clubhouse and went to Gabe Kapler’s office.
Kapler’s guitar was still in the corner. The bar cart that sneaks into view of the cameras during so many post-game interviews was still full. Everything looked normal, but Zaidi returned to the clubhouse knowing he would never again sit in that office and discuss baseball with the man he had chosen to lead the Giants into the future.
Early Friday afternoon, Zaidi met with Kapler for nearly an hour. At one point in the conversation, he told his longtime friend that his time as manager of the Giants was over. Zaidi said it was his decision and his recommendation to the owner.
It was a difficult conversation for Zaidi, and when he explained his reasoning a few hours later, the emotion could still be heard in his voice. But Zaidi felt it was necessary. The Giants are ready for a new voice.
“The thing that I and the other people in this organization think about is that as a group, as a team, we played our worst baseball when it mattered most,” Zaidi said. “I know you guys have been working to figure out why this happened and there are a lot of questions from fans about why this happened. We still have a lot of work to do to figure out why this happened.”
“We felt step one was to make that change happen. I think we’re looking for new and different leadership in our clubhouse, a different dynamic there.”
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“We’re just not happy with the way things have been going the last few years.”
Farhan Zaidi’s opening statement after the Giants fired Gabe Kapler ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/EOea6A1pz6
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 29, 2023
The words “step one” were important because Kapler’s firing is just the beginning. An offseason of change and reflection begins for the Giants. They have disappointed in three of four seasons under Kapler, and the man in charge is aware of the fact that it may well have been a member of the ownership group who sat in the dugout on Friday and talked about both Zaidi and Kapler being fired.
Zaidi repeatedly said he had to take responsibility for the problems that led to him having to fire the first manager he hired as a senior executive.
“I know that ultimately my job is to bring a product to the field that our organization and our fans are proud of, and frankly that just hasn’t happened over the last few years,” he said. “That was difficult for me. It was difficult for many people. But I’m also very determined to fix the problem.”
Zaidi will get that chance starting next month when he leads the search for Kapler’s replacement. For a long time they were considered a package deal, but ultimately someone had to pay for the collapse in the second half.
The news didn’t completely surprise players and mostly just left them in a sad state. Although Kapler had his flaws, he was generally well-liked by his players and those around him. Austin Slater, the second-longest-tenured player on the team, pointed out that Kapler was very reserved, but he appreciated it.
“That’s exactly what happens when you lose baseball games,” he said. “We have clearly underperformed over the last month and a half, honestly since the All-Star break.”
The Giants were 13 games over .500 at one point and remained in the thick of the playoff race into September. On the first day of the month, they had a 60 percent chance of securing a wildcard spot. They were eliminated on Tuesday.
The Giants will spend the coming weeks figuring out what happened, how it happened and why it happened. But on Friday, it was easy to see when that all changed.
Even this week, most in the organization assumed both Zaidi and Kapler would be back next season. But the cracks had become too big on the last road trip, when the Giants lost three of four games at Coors Field and then lost both games to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who were expected to clinch the NL West’s second postseason spot this weekend.
During those two games at Chase Field, the Giants looked old and slow, which was more of a problem for the front office than the coaching staff. But it also looked like they didn’t know how big the games were. In hindsight, the veterans spoke about the lack of edge the team possessed and the need to become more committed to a winning culture.
Even for insiders, it can be difficult to judge whether a manager is actually doing a good job or not. But if poor play is accompanied by questions about preparation and the clubhouse, no manager will survive.
“It was hard for everyone to play the way we did when we controlled our own destiny,” Zaidi said. “It was hard for the players to get through it, it was hard for the fans to watch it, it was hard for us as an organization to watch it. I think that really reinforced our view that we need to make tough decisions and think about things differently.
“I can’t object to drawing a line between this road trip and the end of the season and what we’re talking about right now.”
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