Ex-SF Giants manager Gabe Kapler might fail up, land Red Sox top job

That job? Running the Boston Red Sox baseball operations department. Kapler recently took an interview for the position, according to a report from the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.

Yes, Kapler could go from being fired by Farhan Zaidi, the Giants president of baseball operations, to being one of Zaidi’s contemporaries and trade partners.

It would certainly be a curious move and give the impression that Kapler failed up to land a better gig. But there’s some evidence Kapler is maybe a better fit for a front office job than a manager job.

Before he spent six straight seasons as a manager (two in Philadelphia then four in San Francisco), Kapler was the director of player development for the Dodgers for four seasons. His work revamping the Los Angeles player development structure has been highly regarded in the baseball industry, and considered a key piece of the Dodgers’ sustained success.

On top of that, Kapler has some specific Boston ties. He was on the 2004 Red Sox team that won the club’s first World Series in 86 years and even managed Boston’s High-A team for one season. 

According to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo, Kapler is considered a long shot for the front office job, which has reportedly had several top candidates decline to interview for the role. But the fact that he interviewed at all is a sign that he doesn’t seem content to sit around and record Cameo videos for a while, like he had been doing as Giants manager.

As for the Giants, Andrew Baggarly at The Athletic reported that the team’s managerial search is on hold temporarily. In fact, Zaidi is reportedly on the other side of the world, over in Japan to see top pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto ahead of the right-hander’s likely entry into MLB free agency. (Giants general manager Pete Putila was also in South Korea earlier this month to see top outfielder Jung-hoo Lee, who is similarly expected to come to the U.S. this offseason.)

But another reason to wait for the manager search is that a few candidates the Giants are pursuing aren’t available for interviews yet. Rangers hitting coach Donnie Ecker, for example, is still in the middle of the ALCS.

Baggarly identified Padres manager Bob Melvin as the “candidate looming over everything” right now. The Padres have said Melvin will return, but there reportedly was tension in San Diego during a disastrous 2023 season. The Giants could formally request to interview Melvin — a Menlo Park native, former Giants player and former A’s manager — and see if the Padres allow it to happen. Baggarly noted that Melvin has a “sterling reputation” for managing players from Japan and South Korea.

If the Giants are seriously pursuing Yamamoto — and, in a nugget dropped in his story, Baggarly reports that the industry belief is that “the Giants won’t allow another team to outbid them for his services” — and Lee, it seems as if Melvin lines up as an ideal candidate for them.

But that means that, ahead of a second consecutive massive offseason, Giants fans might have to wait for a while to find out who they get as the manager to replace Kapler — and, perhaps, have to watch Kapler get another high-up job in baseball.