The Marlins announced a series of promotions in their baseball operations department today. Most notable among them was assistant general manager Gabe Kapler being promoted to general manager, making him the front office’s #2 behind president of baseball operations Peter Bendix. In addition, scouting director Frankie Piliere was promoted to vice president of amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives, while Vinesh Kanthan was promoted from director of baseball operations to senior director of baseball operations.
Kapler, 50, has had one of the more unique baseball trajectories. He played in the majors from 1998 to 2010, with a brief stint in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in there as well. He pivoted to coaching in 2007, serving as a minor league manager in the Red Sox’ system, before resuming his playing career for a few more years.
In 2014, officially done his playing days this time, he joined the Dodgers as director of player development. A few years later, going into 2018, the Phillies hired him to be their new manager. He took over a rebuilding club and got them up to around the .500 level but was fired after two years. He then quickly got the managerial gig in San Francisco, again taking over a club that had been losing for years. The Giants went 29-31 in 2020 but then had a miraculous 107-win season in 2021, which led to Kapler winning Manager of the Year honors. Then the Giants slumped back down to the .500 level in the next two seasons. He was fired towards the end of the 2023 campaign.
It was then that the Marlins brought Kapler aboard as assistant general manager. The Marlins had just snuck into the playoffs in 2023 but Bendix clearly didn’t have faith in the sustainability of that roster. When they got out to a slow start in 2024, he quickly pivoted to sell mode. The Fish have had losing records in each of the past two seasons but with some progress shown in 2025. They went from 62 wins in 2024 to 79 this year.
It’s impossible to say how much credit Kapler deserves for the progress in Miami but Bendix presumably is happy with his contributions. Bendix will continue running the front office but there are other reasons for Kapler’s promotion. Kapler’s bump presumably comes with a pay raise. It also makes it so other organizations can’t poach him by offering him the general manager title. Teams generally let their employees pursue promotions but not lateral moves.
Photo courtesy of Darren Yamashita, Imagn Images
There needs to be a book about written about Kapler continuously failing upward.
He clearly had his meeting with “The Bob’s”. How else do you explain promotion based off of poor performance?
“What would you say it is that you do here??”
Disagree. The guy knows baseball. Any taint on Kapler comes from Zaidi micro-managing him.
From terrible manager, to assistant GM, and now GM…what??
Are you saying the Marlins, who almost made the playoffs with the lowest payroll in the league had a bad aGM? Stingy owner, yeah. Bad GM/aGM? Not sure how that makes sense considering they exceeded all expectations by a wide margin last year.
He was not a terrible manager.
Manager of the year in 2021 with a franchise record 107 wins.
Normally, I would say “I’m not sure this guy is GM material, but he is a smart baseball mind”. But personally, I think Gabe Kapler must have photos of everyone in the world of baseball.
The definition of failing upward
Worst. Manager. Ever.
.526 career winning %. Not even close to the worst.
“Worst” is a relative term. Winning percentage definitely matters, yet he was so self absorbed and clueless about team chemistry that he broke the Giants clubhouse.
I’m OG but can embrace change and the new reliance on analytics, but this dude bro treated the players like trash, unless you were one of his guys.
Yeah “worst” is relative. Its relative to all of the other managers in the MLB. Unless youre using it as a hyperbole, youre simply wrong. You dont win a manager of the year award being the “worst” manager ever.
How many of these guys actually got promoted and how many just got fancy new titles for the same jobs?
“Scouting director Frankie Piliere was promoted to vice president of amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives”
Poor Frankie almost sounds like he got demoted. Amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives really just sounds like a lot of words to say scouting. He was THE scouting director, but now he’s the vice president of ‘scouting’.
“Vinesh Kanthan was promoted from director of baseball operations to senior director of baseball operations”
As far as I can find, there was no ‘senior’ before him so he’s just doing the same job with the word senior in front of the title.
It would be funny if all levels of employment were afforded the same level of ego-stroking.
>>
My name’s Jeff, I’m the Junior Vice Chair and Senior Associate in charge of Facilities Beautification and Customer Utilization Improvement.
Pardon?
Oh, I’m the janitor.
Custodian d**k!
“Thank you scientist!”
How!?
I wonder if Kapler would mentor me.
Coconut oil guys coconut oil, key to everything
I can’t stand listening to Bendix’s voice. He sounds so whiny and condescending when he talks. I can’t imagine trying to negotiate with him or working under him.
So what’s the GM equivalent of trying to bring in a non-warmed reliver? LOL
Maybe calling a fellow GM about a trade AFTER the trade deadline.
Accidentally DFAing a star player when you meant to put him on the IL.
Possibly trying to promote a prospect to the big leagues who is hurt.
Kurt Cobain Journal on Coffee Table nicely Placed. Kap is a Boob. Knows a lot about stats and that carries guys. But his leadership is all about hand tattoos, showing of big watches, muscles that look like steroid muscles, colored beards. The guy is a prima donna.
This! And don’t forget about the hipster glasses. He worried more about how he looked in the dugout with the Giants than what he actually did there.
Gabe Kapler is the smartest person that Gabe Kapler knows, so this sounds like a great move.
I still think he had a hand in breaking Kingery.
Hub
*Huh
What longines may have meant is that the Phillies coaches taught Kingery the launch angle and he went from a solid 300 doubles hitting machine to a bust.
Guess he gets on his knees for other things besides the National Anthem.
Now Kapler making hiring, trading & firing decisions. Hope Marlins know what they’re getting into. 😂
Um… I don’t get it. Really, when the dude comes in to interview he must have some kind of magic because I’ve yet to be impressed by anything he’s ever said or done.
Now, I don’t think he’s as awful a manager as some think, in fact he’s objectively not, if he was he’d have a string of 90 or 100 loss seasons. But man, the guy’s photo should be in the dictionary next to the word mediocre. As far as I can tell he brings nothing to the table but biceps and hyperbole.
Kapler gives me one of those ‘It’s all about me’ vibes. I hate vibes like that.
Kapler’s first acquisition as GM was acquiring a full size mirror for his office
ego maniac jack wad
besides the ones he takes of himself, whose pics does Gabe have on his cell phone
Kapler made it possible for Mauricio Dubon to help the Astros win a World Series.
Kap is ok. Just different. He ain’t perfect but he puts everything he has into trying to be. Happy to let him be. He is not hurting anyone with that approach to life.
Once everyone realizes it’s because he’s Jewish then it will all make sense. Based on the rumors there’s a lot of interesting night clubs in Miami he prances around in. Curious how this plays out