‘Radical change’ taking over Phillies spring training under new manager Gabe Kapler

By Matt Rappa, Sports Talk Philly editor

CLEARWATER, Fla. — When the Philadelphia Phillies hired Gabe Kapler as their 54th manager in franchise history on Oct. 30, the front office and ownership group knew drastic change on all facets of the game was imminent. This was radical for a club that long held the stereotype of operating "by-the-textbook."

Change was already being implemented before Kapler arrived. It all began following the 2015 season, upon the hiring of Vice President and General Manager Matt Klentak, Assistant General Manager Ned Rice, and Andy Galdi, director of baseball research and development.

Galdi was perhaps the club's most radical hire up to that point in its then-133-year history, as he was a former quantitative analyst and statistician for YouTube. Galdi's main task upon joining the Phillies was to oversee all baseball analytics — data visualization and reporting, statistical research, and data infrastructure.

Galdi and Kapler, who previously served as the Los Angeles Dodgers' director of player development since November of 2014, now work together in seeking competitive advantages to propel the Phillies ahead of their rivals.

Radical change. Challenging tradition. Unconventional ideas. These three phases are what The Athletic's Matt Gelb describes as the tone already set by Kapler in Phillies training camp, even before pitchers and catchers were set to report to the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater on Wednesday.

Not all of the changes that Galdi and Kapler are bringing to the club are visible on the baseball diamond, but those which can be identified are surely garnering attention by many throughout the league.

Gelb notes some of these changes as follows:

• The Phillies held spring training organizational meetings earlier than usual, late January, to accommodate for the "amount of new people tasked with taking the franchise to the next level."
• The club doubled their mental-skills staff and hired a bilingual intern, scouts and analysts.
• Kapler filmed fielding practice on his smartphone "so he could share it."
• Spring training workouts will now begin around 11 a.m., much later than the traditional pre-dawn arrival time "incongruent with preparing for a season that is played after dusk."
• Kapler looks to track "every step his players take" to regulate workloads: “So, by way of example, if a player comes in and we know he had some extra activity the day before, maybe we don’t have anything specific planned for him the following day, then don’t come to the ballpark today," Kapler said. "Stay home. Recover. Get a massage. Relax. Sleep. And then come back the next day and we’ll pick things back up.”
• With first base expected to feature mostly Carlos Santana and Rhys Hoskins in 2018, Kapler had Tommy Joseph spend 10 minutes taking hard ground balls at the hot corner, a position he never played. Roman Quinn took part in individual infield drills as a shortstop, the first time the outfielder assumed that role since 2014.
• It is becoming hard to differentiate between front office personnel and uniformed coaches. Advance Scouting Manager Mike Calitri flipped balls in a hitting drill, while Sam Fuld, the major league player information coordinator and outfield coach, organized a fielding exercise. Calitri will travel with the team this season and "inform the coaches of trends gleaned from both scouts and analysts."
• The Phillies are constructing a “game-prep room” next to their home clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park that will "provide technology and space for players to ingest ideas and numbers."

Clearly, the Phillies' approach they are taking this season is something never attempted before by a Major League franchise. Regardless of the label — "radical," "challenging tradition," or "unconventional" — clearly Kapler and the rest of the organization is "all-in," as they attempt to get the club back to postseason baseball for the first time since its franchise-best 102-win season in 2011.

“What we don't do is do it because it's the way it's always been done,” said Kapler. “We don't have a cookie-cutter approach.”