Eleven days after the season ended, the Phillies finally determined and announced Gabe Kapler’s status. They became the eighth team that is looking for a new manager after firing him Thursday morning.
Answers about the prolonged process and what went into the decision must wait until 1 p.m. Friday when managing partner John Middleton, team president Andy MacPhail and general manager Matt Klentak will hold a press conference. The Phillies’ executives will no doubt address Kapler’s tenure and the search for his replacement, but it’s hard to imagine their words filling in all the holes.
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The Phillies’ issues are bigger than a managerial move. They have a perception problem.
As the evaluation of Kapler dragged on, it caught the attention of people around the league for both its length and how it was conducted. According to sources, Klentak wanted Kapler back in 2020, the final year of the first-time manager’s three-year contract. But Middleton was the decider, soliciting feedback on the matter internally, including from Phillies players and others in baseball. Ownership is always going to have a say. But this process played out very publicly as Kapler remained in limbo. Now that Kapler has been fired, despite the general manager who hired him advocating for his return, it raises many questions, along with concerns about the power structure in the front office.
Why is the owner involved in baseball operations decisions? It’s one thing when it involves committing $330 million over 13 years to one player, but this involved personnel. The focus now largely shifts to questions about the dynamics and balance in the Phillies’ front office. After all, according to sources, Middleton pushed to have former hitting coach John Mallee fired in August and reached out to Charlie Manuel to see if he would serve as the interim hitting coach for the rest of the season.
The Phillies tried to address this perception through deliberate phrasing in the press release that announced Kapler’s dismissal. It is purposeful.
“With Matt leading our search for our next manager, I am confident that we will find the right person to lead us,” Middleton said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Klentak ended his statement saying, “In the coming weeks, John, Andy and I will work diligently with others in our baseball operations department to find the right individual to build upon the existing foundation and bring a championship home to Philadelphia.”
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It doesn’t exactly add up, though. Klentak wasn’t allowed to keep the guy he hired after firing Pete Mackanin at the end of the 2017 season. And now Klentak supposedly gets to lead the hiring of his third manager since being named GM before the 2016 season for an organization, coming off a rebuild, that still hasn’t produced a winning season since 2011, the last year the Phillies appeared in the postseason. Middleton’s role in this managerial search and hire will be telling if he continues to step in and wield ultimate power in the baseball operation decisions, particularly when it involves the coaching staff.
Middleton empowered the front office to decide the coaching staff’s fate last week while Kapler’s evaluation played out. As The Athleticreported, Middleton was in the loop and gave the front office leeway to keep the coaches it wanted, according to a team source. The coaches were given no assurances by the front office that Kapler would remain as manager. The Phillies last week retained most of the staff, either through new deals for 2020 or by picking up coaches’ options. The team confirmed Thursday that all of the coaches have been asked back aside from pitching coach Chris Young, who will not return in the role. Manuel will transition back to serving as a special advisor to Klentak.
So, the Phillies’ next manager will come into the position with his staff nearly complete, apart from the pitching coach and hitting coach. The re-signed coaches could still choose to leave, and if any are fired, the Phillies would be on the hook to pay their 2020 salary.
From left, Andy MacPhail, Matt Klentak and John Middleton during the Phillies GM’s introductory press conference in October 2015. (Bill Streicher / USA Today)
When the Phillies made their last manager change, firing Mackanin, MacPhail noted in the press conference that he told Klentak at the time of his decision that GMs only get to hire so many managers. MacPhail’s perspective on organizations is relevant in light of Thursday’s move.
“You’ve got to have accountability, and in fairness, you can’t have accountability without some authority and autonomy,” MacPhail said in October 2017. “You get different people, and everybody’s got their finger in a decision, it’s a mess. It’s chaos. That’s not the way it should operate and that’s not the way it’s going to operate.
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“I don’t think there is any one more important than the relationship between a manager and the general manager,” MacPhail continued. “They have to have a mutual trust and respect. The manager has to trust the GM is doing everything he can to make his life better. And the GM has to trust the manager is getting the most out of the talent he has. It’s a critical relationship.”
Firing Kapler certainly increases the pressure and scrutiny on Klentak and, by extension, MacPhail. Within the organization, there were no indications over the past week that Middleton was also evaluating Klentak and the front office, sources said. Moving forward, as Klentak prepares to work with his third manager in five seasons, that is unlikely to remain the case.
Clearly, the results and on-field inconsistencies over the past two seasons were a problem, and the expectations will only heighten in 2020. The Phillies have pointed to injuries as one reason for their shortcomings. But three key hires have not panned out in the last two years — Kapler, Young and Mallee — and those were big misses. More broadly, those hires were connected to the philosophy the organization has instilled throughout the system with its pitching and hitting programs, as well as with its infusion of analytics.
“Several years ago, I promised our loyal fans that I would do everything in my power to bring a world championship team to our city,” Middleton said in Thursday’s statement. “I will never waver from that commitment.”
Kapler, for all his missteps, didn’t deserve the dragged-out process, either. Axing a key leader a week and a half after the season ends is not a great way to treat someone, especially for an organization that prides itself on its family environment. Now, the Phillies find themselves in a bit of a catch-up mode as other organizations have already started interviewing candidates for their open manager jobs.
Klentak and the Phillies cannot afford another swing and miss on their next manager hire. Otherwise, the implications will reverberate beyond the manager’s office at Citizens Bank Park.
(Top photo of Gabe Kapler: Rich Schultz / Getty Images)
