By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
The Philadelphia Phillies appear to have concluded a lengthy search for their next manager.
According to Jon Heyman and Robert Murray of FanRag Sports, general manager Matt Klentak and the Phillies brass have decided on Los Angeles Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler to be their next manager:
The Philadelphia Phillies are focused on Gabe Kapler in their managerial search, and barring something unforeseen, he will be the choice to be the next Phillies manager, sources tell FanRag Sports.
A decision is thought to have been made Sunday, and an announcement could come as early as Monday, or perhaps right after the World Series, which will end Tuesday or Wednesday night.
MLB.com's Todd Zolecki confirmed this report.
Kapler has spent nearly three seasons as the Dodgers director of player development, working in an extremely talented front-office that is led by Andrew Friedman. Friedman nearly hired Kapler to be the successor to Don Mattingly as the Dodgers manager after the 2015 season, but instead chose to hire Kapler's former teammate Dave Roberts. Roberts has proven to be one of the game's top managers, and has the Dodgers within two wins of their first World Series title in nearly three decades. So there wasn't anything wrong with Kapler falling just short of the Dodgers job in 2015. If anything, it allowed him to work in a talented front-office for a few more seasons before getting this chance.
Kapler was a well-regarded utility-man that spent 12 years in the major leagues, including playing for the 2004 Boston Red Sox that broke an 86-year World Series curse. In addition to his playing career and work in the Dodgers' front-office, Kapler also spent time as a studio analyst for FS1.
With Klentak's sabermetrics focus in mind, it isn't a surprise that he's elected to pick the 42-year-old as the next manager. Kapler is considered a progressive baseball mind and just finished a three-year stint working in one of the most progressive organizations in professional sports.
Have there been times where teams decided on a manager and then things fell through? Sure, the Washington Nationals were going to hire now Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black after the 2015 season. Instead, they were unable to agree on a contract and ended up going with Dusty Baker as their manager. That happened because of an unwillingness from the Nationals ownership to spend more money to assure they landed Black. Don't expect that to happen in this case.
We will have more on this story as it comes in…
