SAN FRANCISCO -- During his end-of-season press conference last month, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said he understood the benefits of hiring managers with previous experience in the Majors.
“I think what we've seen with managers is that there's a learning curve,” Zaidi said. “A lot of times guys do better and have more traction their second time around because of the lessons that they've learned.”
Zaidi is now taking that bet on Gabe Kapler. The Giants announced Tuesday that they’ve signed Kapler to a three-year contract as the 39th manager in franchise history and the 17th in the San Francisco era. He will replace Bruce Bochy, who stepped down in September after 13 seasons and three World Series titles with the Giants.
Kapler will be introduced during a press conference at Oracle Park on Wednesday at 12 p.m. PT.
“Probably the key thing that we were looking for and the most important trait, if we could summarize it in one sentence, was somebody who was capable of building trust and relationships with both players and the front office,” Zaidi said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday night. “In my experience with Gabe, and as we went through the interview process and got to learn more about him, it became clear to us that he was the person who could best execute on that.”
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