The Giants' clubhouse was left shocked prior to the team's final series of the season.
San Francisco fired manager Gabe Kapler on Friday, putting an end to his four-year tenure with the organization. The Giants have three games remaining against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers and will look to finish a very disappointing 2023 MLB season strong under interim manager Kai Correa.
In speaking to reporters in the Giants' clubhouse prior to Friday's game, outfielder Austin Slater was asked for his initial reaction to Kapler's firing and when he first heard the news.
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"Definitely some shock. I don't think -- and Farhan's probably the first to admit it -- that this isn't how he wanted it to play out either," Slater said. "We still have three games left and our focus is on winning those games, not only for the guys in this clubhouse but for our fanbase. We know it's a rivalry game, but the job is to still go out there and play baseball and play it to the best of our abilities.
"I guess some guys had found out earlier today when they came in the clubhouse and someone told me when I came in."
Fellow Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski echoed a similar sentiment and praised Kapler while shouldering the blame as a player for the team's underperformance which inevitably led to the manager's firing.
San Francisco Giants
"It's unfortunate. You build a working relationship with somebody for four years and it's always tough to see something like this happen," Yastrzemski added. "Everybody can have their opinions, but Kap was a great guy and he truly did care about everybody in this clubhouse and that's something that you can't take away from him or from any of us.
"It's unfortunate that this is kind of the nature of the beast that he wears the burden of our performance and had a lot of fingers pointed at him when it might not necessarily have been his fault, but he was willing to wear that for us too no matter what. I wish him the best moving forward and hope to reconvene with him at some point down the line again. For now, we just have to focus on moving forward."
With a dark cloud hanging over the organization, the Giants (78-81) will look to finish the season strong before heading into what should be a very busy offseason with many questions to be answered.