Gabriel Stefan Kapler (born July 31, 1975), nicknamed "Kap", is an American former professional baseball outfielder, and current manager of the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB). Kapler was a 57th-round draft pick (1,487th overall) by the Detroit Tigers in the 1995 MLB draft. In the minor leagues, he was an All-Star in 1996, 1997, and 1998, and was recognized by national publications as Minor League Player of the Year in 1998. He played in the major leagues from 1998 to 2010, for the Tigers, Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and Tampa Bay Rays (except for the 2007 season, which — having briefly retired as a player — he spent managing the Greenville Drive of the South Atlantic League, the Single-A affiliate of the Red Sox). Kapler also spent part of the 2005 season playing for the Yomiuri Giants in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. After permanently retiring as a player, Kapler served as a coach for the Israeli national baseball team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, and as Director of Player Development for the Dodgers from 2014 through 2017. He was the manager of the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018 and 2019. He became the manager of the San Francisco Giants in 2020, and led them to a franchise-record 107 wins and the NL West title in 2021. Kapler was named the 2021 National League Manager of the Year. ESPN described him as “an analytically savvy, outside-the-box thinker who [can] also relate well to players.” In five seasons as a manager, he has made the postseason once, which is also the only time he has had led a team to a winning record. Early life Kapler was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, and is Jewish. His father, Michael, was a classical pianist originally from Brooklyn, New York who also wrote music and taught piano. His mother, Judy, is an early childhood educator at a Jewish preschool who is originally from Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. They met while working in the antiwar movement of the 1960s and moved to California in the 1970s. Kapler and his brother Jeremy attended The Country School, due to their father's position on the faculty as a music teacher. At the age of eight, he was hit by a car and needed therapy to overcome his fear of crossing streets. He grew up in middle-class Reseda, Los Angeles, in the