I don't think anyone thinks Kapler could have done what he did there and part of that is because he was a first-time manager and has learned from those mistakes. But the fact that what he is doing in SF could never happen in Philadelphia is a pretty big indictment of Philadelphia, and under this regime as much as the previous one.
My issue is not that the Phillies might be good if Kapler was still here, it's that they still haven't actually been better with new people, or made fewer managerial mistakes (and with the same guy sitting next to the manager the whole time too). I think it would be fantastic if we had Girardi still managing but Kapler's bench coach. Or if our coaching and conditioning staffs could do for Didi and JT what SF did for Crawford and Posey.
I can't say I followed SF's COVID status but Kapler actually strikes me as the kind of guy who could easily be anti-vax himself. (Like you say, New Age. The American anti-vax movement actually started there, not on the right.)
