Gabe Kapler was fired by an MLB team for the second time in four years on Friday as the Giants let him go.
But the conversation he had with Farhan Zaidi following the decision was productive, San Francisco’s president of baseball operations told reporters.
“I spoke to him for an hour. I didn’t expect the conversation to last so long,” Zaidi said on Friday. “I guess I wouldn’t expect anything different from him, but he really made it easy for me whether he should have done it or not. He wanted to talk a lot about what my thoughts were, what my feedback was. We had a lot of back and forth.
“It wasn’t really a personal conversation. It was really professional about what had happened and what he thought we could do better, what I thought we could do better.
Kapler posted his first public statement since his firing on his Instagram on Saturday, reflecting on his tenure with the Giants as a whole — what went wrong, what the team accomplished and more. He said he’s looking forward to the future, and it’s clear from his conversation with Zaidi that Kapler will look to learn from his time in San Francisco.
“I really appreciated this conversation,” Zaidi continues. “He’s really all about work and trying to get better. So I don’t think it’s surprising to anyone who knows him that he immediately sought feedback, even in a very serious moment. That’s what I thought.” was a really good conversation.
“He had time to talk to some people in the clubhouse and say goodbye to people, which was important. I am sure he will continue to do so in the coming weeks. I don’t want to speak too much for him,” but I have to say he was a consummate professional.
Now the Giants are looking for a new manager, with the goal of hiring that person before the offseason begins in early November. And with Zaidi entering the final year of his Giants contract in 2024, he’s certainly hoping to get those talks sorted out, too.
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