Giants manager Gabe Kapler doubled down on his philosophical indifference toward the unwritten rules of baseball Wednesday before San Francisco’s series finale.
On Tuesday, the Padres took exception to Steven Duggar stealing second base and Mauricio Dubón laying down a bunt while the Giants held a big lead. Kapler and the Giants understand there could be consequences for running up the score, but hope that emotions — both from those sins and Antoan Richardson’s ejection — don’t carry over from Tuesday into Wednesday.
“I think it’s important that everything that went on last night doesn’t spill over into retaliation,” Kapler said. “I’m actually speaking more to the unwritten rules conversation. And I don’t think it will. But I do think it’s something just to be aware of. Our team is not going to be taking action. We expect that the Padres won’t take action like that. Major League Baseball expects that no clubs take action like that. And I trust that we’re moving in the right direction in baseball as it relates to retaliation tactics.”
The Giants are believed to be the first team to openly, unitedly flaunt unwritten rules on purpose. They’ve had conversations about how to handle blowouts, and decided as a club to compete regardless of game score and situation. The team believes there’s value in burning opposing teams’ arms by driving up pitch counts, even in blowouts, to win series and gain advantages in the big picture.
Said Kapler: “What we’ve always said as a club, and what we’ll maintain is: if we don’t want a team to bunt, we’ll defend the bunt. If we don’t want a team to steal, we’ll defend the steal. If we don’t want a team to swing 3-0 late in the game, we’ll throw a ball. We have so much control on our side, we don’t have to worry about what other teams decide to do or decide not to do.”
A character trait of the 2021 team was staying even through ups and downs of the season. Kapler hopes that this group maintains a similar “unemotional” poise in the face of this — and future — controversy.
Kapler said he’s never understood why players would ever stop competing while on the baseball diamond. If the pitcher on the mound is trying to get you out, why would you not try to reach base?
The third-year Giants manager also mentioned the grey area that nobody knows exactly what the threshold is for when teams are supposed to relent. Should teams let up when leading by eight runs in the sixth inning? Double-digits? There’s no exact cutoff point.
Clearly, Kapler doesn’t subscribe to any of that. And he has the buy-in of his team.
“I think there’s a lot of sentiment around the game that there’s value in moving away some of those rules and those boundaries that kind of hamstring us from being the most strategic teams we can be, with not a whole lot of upside.”
Kapler said he hopes to chat with Padres manager Bob Melvin pregame to hear his perspective on things. Melvin has been a big league manager since 2003 and has been around the majors since the 1980s.
“What I want to remain cognizant of is this game is beautiful in many ways because it’s traditional,” Kapler said. “And there are many great baseball minds, in our clubhouse and across the way in the opposing dugout that see this thing differently. That’s okay. We’re not all supposed to see baseball the same exact way. We’re not all supposed to agree on the best strategy.”
Another point Kapler made: Major League Baseball is a game of survival. Mauricio Dubón — and any other player — needs to demonstrate his value to a club regardless of the situation. In free agency or in arbitration, Dubón’s bunt single on Tuesday won’t register any differently than a go-ahead single in September would.
In addition to the unwritten rules controversy, Tuesday’s 13-2 Giants win was marred by a confrontation between SF first base coach Antoan Richardson and Padres third base coach Mike Shildt. Richardson was tossed shortly after Shildt made a remark that Richardson said “reeked undertones of racism.”
Kapler said he needed a lot of help from his assistant coaches on Wednesday morning, since he was having conversations with players about what went down between Antoan Richardson and Mike Shildt between 7 a.m. and 10:30.
“I think we all recognize that we have a baseball game to play,” Kapler said. “From my perspective, that baseball game is secondary. Secondary to more important issues. I think Antoan recognizes that when these things come up on the baseball field, they are opportunities to raise awareness and make sure that we have these really important, difficult conversations that we said we were going to have since 2020 and before.”
- Kapler commended first base coach Antoan Richardson for handling himself with maturity and poise in the face of what he considered racist comments by Padres third base coach Mike Shildt. He’s proud of how Richardson used his platform to raise awareness of the power of language and is still perplexed as to why he was ejected from the game. Richardson and Shildt held a joint press conference behind home plate pregame.
- John Brebbia is back with the team from the bereavement list; Yunior Marte is optioned after making his MLB debut.
- Mauricio Dubón is starting at shortstop for Brandon Crawford who is day-to-day with a wrist injury. Crawford left Tuesday’s game after sliding into second base.
