The Atlanta Braves, who hired longtime bench coach Walt Weiss as their 49th manager, weren't the only NL East team to make a surprising personnel decision on Monday. While the Miami Marlins have become known for churning through coaches and front office members, Monday's decision to promote assistant GM Gabe Kapler to general manager might be their most peculiar.
Kapler, who has managed the Phillies and Giants, was hired by Miami prior to the 2024 season as an assistant GM.
Gabe Kapler's Marlins promotion is deeply strange, but Braves fans will probably like it
Over the last few seasons, the Marlins have seen heavy turnover. They've changed managers in 2024 and added Peter Bendix as the president of baseball operations to replace Kim Ng at the end of 2023. While the Atlanta Braves rival will continue to be led by Bendix in the front office, they made the curious decision to promote Gabe Kapler to general manager.
Kapler has grown to prominence over the last decade for his eccentric personality and style, as well as his ups and downs as a manager for the Phillies and Giants. His manangerial career included questionable bullpen decisions, a Manager of the Year Award in 2021 followed by his own pitcher calling for "big changes" shortly before being fired in 2023.
The most curious part of his promotion is that Kapler won't be acting as a leader of baseball-related decisions for the Marlins like we've come to understand the general manager position to be. Instead, Peter Bendix will continue to make the roster and personnel decisions as he has for the last two seasons.
Since being hired by the Marlins, Kapler has focused on player, coaching, and staff development, and it's likely that focus will continue going forward. MLB Trade Rumors suggests that one reason for his promotion is that it would make him difficult to poach, as teams can't entice him by offering him a lateral title.
Jim Bowden of The Athletic also notes that other teams like the Phillies and Dodgers have general managers who don't run the team. Because of this, it will be interesting to see whether this new role will come with any new responsibilities at all, or whether this bizarre promotion is just in title only.