November 13th, 2019 at 10:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka For anyone who actually believed that former Dodgers general manager and current Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was actually going to select anyone other than former Dodgers director of player development and former Philadelphia Phillies manager Gabe Kapler to replace retiring future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy, I’ve got some prime swampland I will sell you on the cheap.
When the (then) 63-year-old Bochy and (then) 24-year MLB manager (12 with the San Diego Padres and 12 with the Giants) announced that he would be retiring after the 2019 season way back on February 18, Zaidi and the 29 Giants owners understandably made no attempt whatsoever to name – or even look for – a successor. After all, they had 162 games to play in what would be Bochy’s 25th managerial season and didn’t need any outside distractions. They also hoped that Bochy would end his brilliant 25-year managerial career with a World Championship.
He did not.
Instead, Bochy and his Giants finished the 2019 season with a 9-0 loss to the (wait for it…) Dodgers, with a dismal 77-85 (.475) record and a less-than-stellar third-place finish in the National League West.
As was the case with seven other MLB teams, the Giants woke up on September 23 looking for a new manager.
That was six weeks ago to fill a position that (nearly) everyone on the planet knew would be filled by Kapler.
On Tuesday evening, November 12, the month-and-a-half-long ‘dog and pony’ show finally ended when it was officially announced that the 44-year-old Kapler had indeed been named as the new manager of the San Francisco Giants.
Prior to his two seasons as the Phillies manager, Kapler spent three seasons as the Dodgers director of player development. Upon his appointment to that position on November 7, 2014, he immediately had all Dodgers minor league affiliates – as well as the major league team – switch to eating only organic food, and had all junk food removed from the respective clubhouses.
Ironically, Kapler was among the favorites – and a finalist – to replace outgoing Dodgers manager Don Mattingly following the 2015 season, but eventually lost out to current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
Funny how things work out sometimes, isn’t it?
Play Ball!
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