Of their ongoing seek for Chaim Bloom’s alternative as head of baseball operations in Boston, the Crimson Sox have interviewed one other exterior candidate, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe: former Phillies and Giants supervisor Gabe Kapler.
Kapler, 48, is one thing of an unorthodox candidate to take the highest baseball operations job for the Crimson Sox. Although he has earlier entrance workplace expertise as director of participant growth for the Dodgers from 2014-2017, most of his baseball expertise has come on the sphere and within the dugout; he was a participant within the main leagues for six completely different groups throughout twelve seasons earlier than serving as supervisor of the Phillies from 2018-2019 earlier than being changed by Joe Girardi. From there, he was promptly employed to switch Bruce Bochy in San Francisco, and managed there for 4 seasons earlier than being fired simply earlier than the tip of the 2023 marketing campaign.
That being mentioned, Kapler has loads of ties to Boston. His main league enjoying profession noticed him play components of 4 seasons for the Crimson Sox, together with 136 video games in the course of the membership’s curse-breaking 2004 season that noticed them win the World Sequence for the primary time since 1918. After initially retiring following the 2006 season, Kapler took a job because the supervisor of Boston’s Excessive-A affiliate in Greenville for the 2007 season earlier than making a comeback as an enormous league participant from 2008-2010.
What’s extra, Kapler is a reasonably well-respected and adorned large league supervisor. Although his groups have made the postseason simply as soon as throughout his six seasons within the dugout, his groups have by no means considerably under-performed preseason expectations, and through his Giants tenure the membership usually outperformed their projections. Most notable of these over-performances, in fact, was San Francisco’s 107-win 2021 marketing campaign that noticed Kapler win the NL Supervisor of the 12 months award in an almost unanimous vote. PECOTA’s projections that season gave San Francisco a projected win complete of simply 75, whereas Fangraphs projected the membership to win 76. The membership additionally outperformed it’s projections in 2020 and 2022, although to not the identical staggering diploma as in 2021.
Kapler is hardly the one exterior candidate the Crimson Sox are at the moment discussing, as Cubs assistant GM Craig Breslow, Twins GM Thad Levine, and former Pirates GM Neal Huntington are among the many different candidates which have interviewed for the highest job in Boston, together with inside candidates corresponding to assistant GMs Eddie Romero and Paul Groopman. Per MassLive’s Chris Cotillo, Kapler is reportedly one thing of an extended shot to finally land the highest job in Boston. Speier beforehand described Breslow as a “main candidate” for the place because the membership heads into the subsequent part of their search.
Cotillo provides that Kapler is believed to be serious about each on-field and entrance workplace roles as he seeks his subsequent job after departing San Francisco. Although he’s seemingly solely interviewed to run the baseball operations division in Boston at this level, there’s actually nothing stopping Kapler from returning to the Crimson Sox group in one other capability ought to the membership resolve to go in one other route for his or her high job.
The Crimson Sox have seen a variety of high-profile candidates decline to interview for the place, together with former Astros GM James Click on and former Marlins president Michael Hill. One other excessive profile candidate who has been rumored for the place is former Marlins GM Kim Ng, who just lately declined her finish of a mutual possibility with Miami after possession determined to choose up their aspect of the choice somewhat than provide Ng an extension whereas trying to rent a president of baseball operations above her. Whereas her departure from Miami seemingly opened the door to her becoming a member of the Crimson Sox, Cotillo cautions that a number of sources just lately “threw chilly water” on the thought of Ng matching up with Boston.
