Again in October, we realized that extremely revered baseball thoughts and glass ceiling-smasher Kim Ng stepped down from her GM position as a result of the Marlins, who Ng had improved from a document of 57-105 to 84-78 and an NL Wild Card berth, insisted on hiring a president of baseball operations to be Ng’s boss. Certain, many MLB organizations are structured to have each a president of baseball ops and a GM, however to all of a sudden shift to such a hierarchy after the primary feminine GM in MLB historical past takes your woeful workforce to the playoffs felt silly at finest, and actually, actually sexist at worst.
Now, the Marlins have accomplished themselves one higher, hiring former Giants’ supervisor Gabe Kapler as an “assistant GM.” This made me snort with laughter, because the Marlins don’t at present possess a GM, what with them f-cking round and discovering out with the beforehand talked about Kim Ng. Kapler did an honest job in San Francisco, ending his time there with a document of 295-248, however loads of these wins got here within the Giants’ 107-win 2021 workforce, the one Giants workforce below Kapler’s tenure to complete with a successful document or make the postseason.
However right here’s precisely why the Marlins are so fired up to usher in Kapler, per Ken Rosenthal.
“Success” is actually a phrase selection for Kapler’s time with the Dodgers, which might be finest remembered not for what he achieved on the sector. From 2014 till he was employed as supervisor by the Phillies in 2017, Kapler was working as Dodgers’ director of participant growth. In 2015, he received an email from the grandmother of a 17-year outdated woman, who claimed she was beaten up by two women whereas consuming with Dodgers’ minor leaguers at a lodge. Kapler responded to this revelation by making an attempt to arrange a dinner with the younger woman, her grandmother and the 2 gamers who didn’t intervene, together with one who recorded the incident. Kapler wrote to the grandmother that the dinner would “teach valuable lessons to all involved through this method of follow up,” together with, presumably, the 2 grownup gamers who have been consuming with an underage woman. According to the Washington Post, Kapler didn’t report the incident to the Dodgers or the police.
Later, the woman claimed to have been sexually assaulted by one of many gamers, which Kapler denies understanding about on the time he instructed the dinner. Because the at all times wonderful Jon Wertheim wrote for SI, “The case of the runaway is illustrative of just how easily allegations of sexual assault can vanish. When contacted by police, the Dodgers hired an attorney for the player, as they are required by California employment law. Yet, after no criminal charges were forthcoming, the team did not request the police report, and, multiple sources tell SI, the incident was seldom discussed again.” Although a case employee for the woman, who was a runaway, reportedly needed a Dodgers minor-leaguer prosecuted for sexual assault, the woman refused to cooperate, and the problem simply went away. As they so usually do.
After the preliminary story broke, Sports Illustrated reported that Kapler and his workers have been conscious of two different incidents on the similar lodge, one was the allegation {that a} participant had sexually assaulted a member of the lodge’s housekeeping workers, the opposite {that a} group of Dodgers’ minor leaguers have been “caught on surveillance video confronting female guests— stalking … and behaving strangely.’” In accordance with SI, Dodgers Supervisor of Worldwide Scouting Roman Barinas later wrote in a textual content thread relating to the allegations of sexual violence in opposition to the housekeeper, “[The player] crossed a line and is extremely lucky he isn’t in jail.”
If Kapler reported both of these incidents to the Dodgers, the workforce by no means reported them to MLB. All three tales solely got here out as a result of former Kapler assistant Nick Francona, who was fired by Kapler, determined to speak to the media.
And lest you suppose that data of Kapler’s position in dealing with the aforementioned incidents is area of interest data, solely remembered by those that care sufficient to dig across the web to seek out proof of misdeeds, Kapler’s introductory press convention as supervisor of the Giants in 2019 was heavily peppered with questions about his tenure with the Dodgers. Kapler advised the media that day, ““I think if I could go back and do some of the Dodgers stuff different, I probably would have called my mom and asked her a few more questions about which steps to take. And, to (Giants’ GM Farhan Zaidi’s) point, figuring out ways to support even better. I think this is the right time to say that I’m sorry that I didn’t make all the right moves.”
The factor is, calling his mother was not what Kapler was alleged to do and it’s not what MLB requires him to do. What he was alleged to do was inform his bosses on the Dodgers, who have been alleged to report it to MLB (although the league coverage requiring the Dodgers to tell MLB wasn’t put into place till six months after the allegations made by the 17-year outdated, the coverage was in place for the final two incidents).
There are individuals who have the coaching and expertise to deal with the victims and the allegations made in opposition to gamers below Kapler’s watch, and they don’t work for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Even giving Kapler the advantage of the doubt and taking his phrase that he didn’t know concerning the sexual assault claims, in what world is a former baseball participant certified to sit down down with a minor and two grownup males, and mediate the truth that they didn’t intervene in her bodily abuse, after plying her with alcohol of their lodge room? The individuals who do this sort of factor work in mediation and restorative justice, undergo a major quantity of coaching and, in lots of communities, are required to be licensed. Kapler’s hubris in pondering he had the abilities to average a dialogue over dinner are nonetheless mind-blowing.
So both the Marlins find out about all this and it simply didn’t register that a number of allegations of gamers harming ladies below Kapler’s watch is one thing folks would possibly, you understand, care about, or they didn’t do sufficient analysis and are simply saying no matter appears like the suitable factor to say about their new man. Both manner, it’s yet one more horrible search for Miami.
