Conforto believes Giants players, not Kapler, deserve blame for collapse

Conforto believes Giants players, not Kapler, deserve blame for collapse

originally appeared on
NBC Sports Bay Area

Michael Conforto is of the opinion that the Giants players have only themselves to blame for the team’s fall in the latter half of the 2023 MLB season.

By August 3, the Giants (61-49) were 12 games over .500, trailing the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West by just 2.5 games. They also held the third-best overall league record and were in sole possession of the first wild-card position.

However, the team’s fortunes took a drastic turn.

San Francisco concluded the season with a dismal 18-34 record over the remaining 52 games, plummeting out of the playoff picture. This led to the firing of manager Gabe Kapler before the final series of the season.

Conforto sat down with
KNBR 680’s “Murph & Mac”
on Thursday and shared his thoughts on the Giants’ collapse and Kapler’s dismissal.

“Unfortunately that’s kind of the nature of the game,” Conforto said. “And I can tell you, it weighed on the players as well. We’re the ones out there not executing on the field, not getting our job done toward the end of the season and the hammer kind of falls on Kap. That’s not fun for anybody in the organization. I always really respected Kap, I appreciated his consistency, him showing up and being the same guy every day.”

“I think at the end of the day, at the end of the season, the players, we just didn’t go out there and perform and we were battling injuries. We were a little banged up at the end of the year. But really there’s no excuse, you have to go out there and make the plays, do your job, execute. We just didn’t do that, so that’s kind of a learning experience for us. We’ve got to find ways to show up at the end of the season when games mean the most. I think that leaves us pretty motivated.”

The Giants observed as the division-rival Arizona Diamondbacks, with 84 wins, powered through the postseason and into the World Series, although they eventually lost to the Texas Rangers in five games. Conforto believes that the Giants could have achieved the same fate had they not faltered towards the end of the season.

“Knowing what we had, knowing what kind of position we were in in August and seeing really who ended up in the World Series. That just as easily could have been us had we just continued to play decent baseball, play the way we were playing throughout the middle part of that season,” Conforto explained. “It just shows, if you get hot at the right time you can really make a run at the World Series.”

Conforto is set to return to the Giants in 2024 after
officially opting into the second year of the contract signed with the team last offseason. Under the stewardship of veteran manager Bob Melvin, Conforto is eager to form a bond with the new skipper.

“We talked briefly, very briefly,” Conforto said of his interactions with Melvin this offseason. “This was before I opted in, he was just reaching out saying no pressure, but he’s admired my game and admired how I was able to come back after missing a year and was hoping he’d have me back on the team, which was great.”

“I’ve heard only really really positive things from players around the league, guys I know. Obviously, I’ve been in the other dugout across from him. I don’t know him very well, but I’m looking forward to making that relationship close and seeing what all the hype is about. It’s good to have another Bay Area guy back and a guy who knows what this team means to this area and to the Bay Area and I always think that’s a special thing.”

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