San Francisco Giants owner Greg Johnson wants to keep the Gabe Kapler-Farhan Zaidi duo intact for the foreseeable future.
Johnson made good on his promise last month to keep Kapler and Zaidi in the Bay Area. The Giants owner is standing behind Zaidi after his opt-out clause expired several months ago, per the San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser.
On the other hand, Gabe Kapler’s tenure as Giants manager became tenuous during the team’s recent six-game slide. Greg Johnson brushed off the rumors and also stood behind Kapler. The former emphasized both Kapler and Zaidi will be around for the 2024 MLB season.
San Francisco Giants owner Greg Johnson reiterated what he’d told the Chronicle last month: President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler aren’t going anywhere. https://t.co/HJcte3jom4
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) September 15, 2023
The Giants (75-71) are currently second behind the NL West-leading Los Angeles Dodgers. San Francisco is fighting for a slot in the best-of-three Wild Card series in the posttseason.
Despite the Giants’ up-and-down season, Johnson feels Kapler is still his manager moving forward.
“Gabe’s done a great job navigating us through some challenges this season. We rank third in MLB in playing time allocated to rookies, and Gabe and his staff continue to do outstanding work supporting and developing those young players,” Greg Johnson said.
For his part, Farhan Zaidi confirmed San Francisco was in hot pursuit of New York Yankees slugger Aaron Juge in the offseason. Although the Giants missed out on signing Judge and Carlos Correa, Kapler felt San Francisco’s opening day roster was formidable. Unfortunately, it hasn’t turned out that way. The Giants had an 81-81 win-loss record in 2022 and they’re teetering on the brink of mediocrity again.
To make matters worse, the Giants are currently 13.5 games behind their long-time nemesis, the Dodgers. With Zaidi and Kapler coming back, the Giants hope to make significant progress in the 2024 MLB season.
