Phillies reportedly retaining some members of Gabe Kapler’s staff for 2020

The Philadelphia Phillies, per multiple reports, will wait until next week to officially announce the future of manager Gabe Kapler. There’s no indication at this point that a final decision has been made on Kapler – who is under contract for 2020 – but even if it was, it would give the perception that the Phillies were trying to bury the news if they announced it on Friday or over the weekend.

In a slightly related note, Meghan Montemurro of The Athletic says that four coaches on Kapler’s nine coach staff have been informed that they will be back with the team in 2020. That probably doesn’t mean anything one way or another on Kapler, but logistically, the Phillies didn’t want to be left without any coaches on their staff. Even if they ultimately decide to keep Kapler, if a decision isn’t going to come until next week, some coaches may have taken guaranteed jobs elsewhere. This eliminates that, at least in the case of the four coaches that are being retained.

Also worth noting: Montemurro says that the Phillies front office informed the coaches being kept that a decision hasn’t been made on Kapler, so they aren’t guaranteed to be working under him in 2020, though they may be.

What isn’t known is what coaches are being held over. All expectations are that Charlie Manuel was just the team’s interim hitting coach and there wasn’t serious interest from either side in him filling that role on a permanent basis. Pitching coach Chris Young will not return in 2020. The other seven coaches on the 2019 Phillies staff were bench coach Rob Thomson, third base coach Dusty Wathan, first base coach Paco Figueroa, assistant hitting coach Pedro Guerrero, assistant pitching coach Dave Lundquist, infield coach Bobby Dickerson and bullpen coach Jim Gott.

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