Giants fire manager Kapler after 4 seasons
The San Francisco Giants relieved manager Gabe Kapler of his duties, the club announced Friday.
Kapler spent four years as Giants skipper.
"After making this recommendation to ownership and receiving their approval, I met with Gabe today to inform him of our decision," Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said in a press release.
Zaidi added: "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."
This is the first time San Francisco has fired a manager since Roger Craig replaced Jim Davenport with 18 games remaining in the 1985 campaign, according to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic.
"It is a disappointment to say goodbye. ... I felt a genuine connection, perhaps not to everyone everywhere, of course, but to most," Kapler said, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports. "I've heard the criticism, and I've heard the support. I believe we all aspire to come to work every day and believe that the work we do is meaningful, and that was true for me with this group."
Kapler went 295-248 during his time with the Giants, which included a franchise-record 107 victories in 2021 en route to winning the NL West title.
However, the team missed the postseason in 2022 after finishing 81-81 and has already been eliminated from contention this year with 78 wins through 159 games.
"As a group and a team, we played our worst baseball when it mattered the most," Zaidi told reporters, per Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle.
He added: "We have a lot of work to do to figure out why that happened. ... We are looking for new and different leadership in our clubhouse."
A lot of early speculation in the industry that Bob Melvin would be a fit for the Giants' managerial vacancy if he parts ways with the Padres. He and Farhan know each other, of course, from their A's days together.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) September 29, 2023
San Francisco named bench coach Kai Correa as interim manager for the final three games of the season this weekend, according to the Chronicle's John Shea.
Correa, 35, was originally hired as Kapler's lieutenant in 2020. The Hilo native is the first Hawaiian-born manager in MLB history, per Baseball Reference.