Kapler fired as San Francisco Giants manager: club

SAN FRANCISCO, United States -- San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler was sacked by the Major League Baseball club on Friday (Saturday, Manila time) after his team once again failed to reach the playoffs.

Kapler was named National League Manager of the Year in 2021 after masterminding a 107-win season -- the only time his team finished the regular season above .500 -- but was given his marching orders after disappointing campaign.

"After making this recommendation to ownership and receiving their approval, I met with Gabe today to inform him of our decision," Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.

"In his tenure as Giants manager, Gabe led our team through an unprecedented pandemic in 2020 and a franchise-record 107 wins and postseason berth in 2021. 

"He has been dedicated and passionate in his efforts to improve the on-field performance of the San Francisco Giants and I have tremendous respect for him as a colleague and friend. 

"On behalf of the Giants organization, we wish Gabe the best of luck in his future endeavours and thank him for his contributions over the last four years."

The Giants were officially eliminated from postseason contention on Tuesday, when they slumped to a 4-0 defeat against NL West rivals the San Diego Padres.

Due to MLB's complicated tiebreaker rules, Kapler was initially uncertain over whether the Giants had been ruled out of the postseason after the loss when speaking to reporters.

"It's disappointing," the 48-year-old said on Tuesday. "We expected to go to the postseason and every step along the way we expected to go to the postseason and that never changed. It's certainly frustrating."

Kapler was 295-248 for his four seasons since his appointment in 2020, when he took over from the retiring Bruce Bochy.