Gabe Kapler returns to Philadelphia, with lessons from his Phillies years in tow | Scott Lauber

"I think we took good steps towards the vision many of us had when I came [to the Phillies]. But it wasn’t enough. We just didn’t win enough.” Kapler told The Inquirer in an interview this week.

Gabe Kapler will return to Philadelphia on Monday for the first time since getting fired by the Phillies 18 months ago. Kapler is in his second season as manager of the San Francisco Giants.Read moreEric Risberg / AP

by Scott Lauber

Published Apr. 16, 2021, 11:56 a.m. ET

Gabe Kapler didn’t just manage the Phillies for two seasons. He lived here, by choice, almost year-round, a notable detail given he grew up and spent most offseasons prior to 2017-18 near the beach in sunny, scenic Southern California.

It wasn’t enough for Kapler to rent a place in or around Philadelphia from April through October, then retreat to the other coast. He wanted to experience the city, feel its rhythms, get to know the people. So he moved to Northern Liberties and became a regular at Café La Maude. He explored the cuisine, from Suraya to Zahav. He made friends, and not only within the Phillies organization.

“Two years is a long period of time to live somewhere,” Kapler said Thursday in a phone interview with The Inquirer. “You do build relationships. You find great restaurants that you love going to. I felt good about all those things.”

Let there be no doubt that Kapler enjoyed his time here. But it ended abruptly, as it often does for major-league managers. The Phillies were 80-82 in 2018, Kapler’s first season, a 14-win improvement over the year before. But ownership spent nearly half a billion dollars in the Bryce Harper/Andrew McCutchen/J.T. Realmuto/Jean Segura/David Robertson winter of 2018-19 and wasn’t satisfied with an 81-81 finish.

Someone had to take the fall. In October 2019, it turned out to be Kapler.

Monday will mark Kapler’s first trip back to town in the 18 months since he was fired. He’s in his second season at the helm of the San Francisco Giants, who narrowly missed the playoffs last year and were off to an 8-4 start entering a weekend series in Miami.

Kapler would have returned last August, but the pandemic caused Major League Baseball to shorten the season and draw up a regional schedule. It’s better this way. His breakup with the Phillies isn’t as fresh now. He’s had more time to reflect, and if you know Kapler, you know that he’s nothing if not reflective.

“I went into Philly understanding there were some great baseball people who had started building a foundation, and I was confident I could contribute to make it better,” Kapler said. “I think we took good steps towards the vision many of us had when I came in. But it wasn’t enough. We just didn’t win enough.

“It was disappointing to not be able to see it through, but that’s part of baseball. There isn’t always a direct line for a rebuild, and bumps along the way are inevitable.”

Kapler dealt with his share. Opening day 2018, for instance. He infamously pulled Aaron Nola in the sixth inning after 68 pitches with a 5-0 lead in Atlanta, and the Phillies lost 8-5. Two days later, he summoned reliever Hoby Milner from the bullpen before he was properly warmed up. A few days after that, he got booed during pregame introductions at the home opener.

But Kapler’s biggest problem may have been in the way that he was perceived.

The Phillies hired Kapler because they wanted a progressive manager who spoke the language of analytics. But with his tanned skin, bodybuilder physique, and tendency to speak like a motivational coach, he neither looked nor sounded like any manager who preceded him. Former general manager Matt Klentak, who hired Kapler and advocated for him to keep his job, said after his firing, “Kap had a hard time gaining acceptance.”

Indeed, Kapler’s detractors accused him of not being “Philly” enough.

“Look, the people that I spent time with away from the ballpark — fans that I bumped into and had conversations with — I didn’t feel anything other than acceptance,” Kapler said. “But I did read and I do read, so I understand Matt’s perspective.”

Many of Kapler’s friends do, too.

“I think people see sometimes the clips on TV or the 10-minute postgame interviews and have that reaction of, ‘This seems a little different. Is this real? This isn’t what I’m used to,’ ” said Stephanie St. Amour, Kapler’s longtime business partner and executive director of his recently created Pipeline For Change Foundation. “I think Philly had that reaction of, ‘Well, this isn’t Larry Bowa. This isn’t Charlie Manuel.’ And it’s not. That’s certainly true. But it’s certainly very much him, and when you get to know him, it’s his real personality.”

Kapler, 45, says the list of lessons learned from his Phillies tenure is “pretty substantial.” Here’s one: He concedes that he lost sight of how difficult it is to play the game, even though he rose from being a 57th-round draft pick to a 12-year major-league career with six teams, including the curse-busting 2004 Boston Red Sox.

With the Phillies, Kapler prioritized uncovering the slightest marginal advantages, a process that involved subterranean dives into data and led to some unorthodox moves, such as lifting Scott Kingery for a pinch-hitter in the second inning of a key September game because the opponent brought in a right-handed reliever after a lefty opener. He still believes strongly in chasing those edges. But he realizes now that it shouldn’t come at the expense of players’ comfort and confidence.

“I have a better understanding that gaining an on-paper advantage doesn’t help if it costs the humans that are playing too much psychologically,” Kapler said. “I remember how challenging this game is. The players I managed in Philadelphia and now are more talented than I was, but baseball is harder than ever. And it will cause self-doubt and sometimes even mental anguish.

“I make more allowances for comfort zones now, recognizing that sometimes all that is needed is a calm and steady presence to let players’ confidence and talent come through. Maximizing team performance requires a lot of nuance and finding the balance between art and science.”

Kapler wants to go for morning walks in Fishtown next week, maybe duck into a favorite coffee shop or three. But the world has changed in unimaginable ways since the Phillies let him go. MLB’s COVID-19 protocols will likely prevent him from enjoying the city as he would like.

But Kapler is the same, thoughtful as ever and unafraid to speak out about issues beyond baseball. He’s an advocate for social justice and the Black Lives Matter movement. He supports The Players Alliance, an organization founded last summer by Black players to promote equity in the sport.

Kapler and St. Amour have a similar goal with Pipeline For Change, a nonprofit that strives to create opportunities for people of color, women, the LGBTQ+ community, people with physical disabilities, and many others to work in sports. St. Amour, who has teamed with Kapler on other ventures over the last 7 1/2 years, calls their partnership “an absolute life-changing experience” and “the most meaningful thing that I have ever done in my life.”

With the Giants, Kapler’s coaching staff is a testament to diversity. It includes Alyssa Nakken, the first full-time female coach in the majors.

If anything, Kapler said the Philadelphia experience reinforced that he must be himself. In 2019, when he was asked if he needs to express more anger to players in instances when they didn’t hustle, he memorably said, “I’m not [freaking] Dallas Green.” In San Francisco, he isn’t Bruce Bochy, his three-time World Series-winning predecessor.

“I couldn’t be Charlie or Pete [Mackanin] or [Bowa] in Philly, and I didn’t try to be,” Kapler said. “I won’t try to be Bochy now. I’ll manage in the best way I know how for the players and the game we have in the moment. I trust that’s the only move. It just wasn’t the right fit at the right time in Philly.”

It wasn’t for a lack of trying, something that’s worth remembering as Kapler returns to a city that he really wanted to call home.