New San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler had to address a difficult topic in his introductory press conference on Wednesday.
The Washington Post reported last February that in 2015, a 17-year-old girl had reported to Kapler, then the Dodgers’ director of player development, that she had been videotaped by two Dodgers minor leagues while being assaulted by two women in a hotel room. Kapler did not go to the police, instead trying to set up a dinner with the girl and the minor leaguers. The girl later went to police and stated that she had been sexually assaulted by one of the players. Kapler later stated that he had not been aware of that allegation until the Post reported the story, and said his process was in line with the club’s policy.
During Kapler’s press conference Wednesday, both Kapler and Giants president Farhan Zaidi, who was GM of the Dodgers at the time of the allegations, addressed what happened to get ahead of potential questions.
At start of introduction of Gabe Kapler, Farhan Zaidi spoke about LA incidents for three minutes. Said: “I don’t think we did enough (in supporting the victims). I’ve had to reflect on that. I’m truly sorry we didn’t do more.”
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) November 13, 2019
Gabe Kapler said he spoke to his mom a lot over the past month "for obvious reasons." He regrets that he did not talk to her about what to do during Dodgers incidents.
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) November 13, 2019
Gabe Kapler: "I’m sorry that I didn’t make all the right moves. Everything that I did I acted on from a place of goodness and my heart and wanting to do the right thing, but I was naïve. I was in over my skis.”
— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) November 13, 2019
Kapler was 39 at the time of the Dodger incidents, so to essentially say that he would’ve needed to talk to his mother to handle that situation better is fairly ridiculous. It’s easy to see that the Giants knew this would come up and wanted to try to get ahead of it, but it’s unlikely that Kapler’s explanation — and his admission that he was in over his head at the time — is unlikely to silence his critics. This, combined with fan antipathy toward the hire due to his mediocre record and unusual decision-making with the Philadelphia Phillies, probably isn’t how the Giants wanted his tenure to start.
