The San Francisco Giants hired Gabe Kapler to be their new manager on Tuesday night and Twitter had some thoughts.
With future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy departing after 13 seasons, the search for the next manager was item No. 1 on the offseason to-do list for the San Francisco Giants.
After an exhaustive search that was eventually narrowed to a field of three candidates, the Giants have made a decision.
It’s former Philadelphia Phillies manager Gabe Kapler.
Get to know our new #SFGiants Manager, Gabe Kapler! pic.twitter.com/N13pXI9Pro
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) November 13, 2019
To say this move is a controversial one would be putting it mildly.
If you’re not acquainted with Kapler’s baggage, I’ll direct you to this piece from Grant Brisbee of The Athletic for the case against hiring Kapler and this tweet form Julie DiCaro of 670TheScore:
From a purely baseball standpoint, he also struggled to a 161-163 record in his two seasons managing the Phillies, including a 2019 season that began with lofty expectations.
So what does Twitter think about the hire?
A lot.
First, this from Bob Nightengale of USA Today:
Gabe Kapler will be hugely popular in SF
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) November 13, 2019
Based on everything else you’re about to read, I would call that take wildly optimistic.
Phillies fans seemed to think Kapler would never manage again after his disappointing two-year run with the team, which is certainly telling:
Jon Heyman of MLB Network weighed in on the baseball side of things:
Gabe Kapler is a smart guy and perhaps he learned from Philadelphia. Folks talk about the unusual stuff (coconut oil etc.) But his failing in Philly was more basic. He didn’t get players to play to their capability. Beyond Bryce, JT and 1/2 others his players underperformed.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) November 13, 2019
Getting players to play up to their potential would seem to be key when you’re sitting in that manager’s seat.
Here’s what Farhan Zaidi had to say about the hire, via Kyle Glaser of Baseball America:
Farhan Zaidi's statement below on hiring Gabe Kapler as Giants manager pic.twitter.com/D99TXieCTl
— Kyle Glaser (@KyleAGlaser) November 13, 2019
In the end, the front office knew this was going to be how the fan base reached, and they made the hire anyway.
The Giants knew they might get ratioed with their managerial hire. But they also knew they hired Farhan Zaidi to make decisions like this one, and ultimately he felt Gabe Kapler was the right guy: https://t.co/F4zLSd64Qk
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) November 13, 2019
That would seem to imply that they think the initial blowback is worth it. We shall see if that’s the case.
For now, Giants Twitter is a dark, dark place.