Gabriel Stefan Kapler (born July 31, 1975), nicknamed "Kap", is an American assistant general manager of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He played in the major leagues from 1998 to 2010, for the Tigers, Texas Rangers, Colorado Rockies, Boston Red Sox, Milwaukee Brewers, and Tampa Bay Rays (except for the 2007 season, which — having briefly retired as a player — he spent managing the Greenville Drive of the South Atlantic League, the Single-A affiliate of the Red Sox).

Kapler also spent part of the 2005 season playing for the Yomiuri Giants in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League.

[3][5][6][7][8] Kapler and his brother Jeremy attended The Country School, due to their father's position on the faculty as a music teacher.

[6][7][10] Kapler attended William Howard Taft Charter High School in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

[17][18] Playing 63 games for the Jamestown Jammers after he signed, he tied for second in the Class A- New York–Penn League in doubles (with 19), fifth in extra-base hits (27), and batted .288/.351/.453.

[16][28] In November 1999, he was traded by the Tigers with Al Webb, Frank Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Bill Haselman, and Justin Thompson to the Texas Rangers for Juan González, Danny Patterson, and Gregg Zaun.

[33] In July 2002, the Rangers traded Kapler, with Jason Romano and cash, to the Colorado Rockies for Dennys Reyes and Todd Hollandsworth.

[5] In 2004, when Shawn Green of the Dodgers announced that he would not play on Yom Kippur, the Boston media asked Kapler if he would do the same thing.

[6] On Patriots' Day 2004, Kapler drove in two runs, including the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth inning off former Red Sox closer and Yankees setup man Tom Gordon.

[38] Less than one month after the Red Sox dramatic 2004 World Series victory, Kapler departed to play for Japan's Yomiuri Giants.

[36] In September 2005, Kapler ruptured his left Achilles tendon while rounding the bases after a home run by teammate Tony Graffanino.

"[46] The initial plan, before Mike Cameron was acquired, was to have Kapler replace the non-tendered Kevin Mench as a right-handed option to share time with Tony Gwynn Jr., Gabe Gross, and Joe Dillon, in left field.

[51] While Cameron served a 25-game suspension to start the season for twice testing positive for a banned stimulant in the fall of 2007, Kapler made the club, and began to see action in center field.

[52][53] On April 5, 2008, he hit the first pinch-hit home run of his career for Milwaukee in the 7th inning of a game against the San Francisco Giants.

[57][58] Kapler missed the last two weeks of the season as well as the NLDS after tearing his latissimus dorsi muscle in his right shoulder on a throw to the plate in mid-September.

In June, he tied a club record shared by Jose Canseco and Julio Lugo, with home runs in four straight games.

[76] Israel lost to Spain in extra innings in the Pool Finals, and did not qualify to play in the World Baseball Classic.

[77][78] From 2012 to 2013, Kapler worked closely with technology startup Egraphs, which focused on electronic personalized autographs, and which was licensed with MLB and the NBA.

[90][91] Kapler, known as a proponent of advanced statistics and healthy food, explained his flexible general approach, saying: One thing we want to do is avoid locking ourselves into any organizational philosophy that can't be easily altered or improved.

While mining for best practices, we have overarching themes and philosophies, but we don't want to say, 'This is what we believe' and get so dug in that we're not capable of being nimble as new studies present better ways to approach problems and development.

He sought direction from Dodgers' lawyers and human resources personnel and then replied quickly with a phone call, apologized, and offered to help in any way she needed.

[98][99] Kapler was one of the favorites and a finalist to become the new Dodgers manager following the departure of Don Mattingly, but lost out to Dave Roberts prior to the 2016 season.

[113] In 2020, after Kapler hired three hitting coaches who were young enough to still be players, the Giants veteran hitters raved about how well prepared they were going into games with the new approach.

[117] Both new and veteran players responded positively to Kapler, and a number of them highlighted his steadiness as a factor in turning around slumping years.

[125] In the 2021 regular season, his Giants won more games than any other major league team (107; with his team's winning percentage rising from .483 to .660), the 12 overturns caused by his challenges were tied with those of LA's Dave Roberts for the most in the majors, and he was one of only two managers who were not ejected during the season (along with Tampa Bay's Kevin Cash).

[127] Kapler's players praised him for keeping open lines of communication with them throughout the season, which was especially important given that he used the team's entire roster, shattering the MLB record for pinch-hit appearances as he exploited matchups aggressively.

[128] Kapler was named the 2021 National League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, with 28 of a possible 30 first place votes.

[138] He will work under the Marlins' new president of baseball operations Peter Bendix, formerly a member of the Tampa Bay Rays front office during Kapler's time with the team as a player in 2009–10.

[18] He joined Bob Melvin, Brad Ausmus, Jeff Newman, Norm Sherry, Lou Boudreau, Andy Cohen, and Lipman Pike.