Phillies manager Gabe Kapler officially on hot seat with Charlie Manuel hire

The Phillies’ surprising hire of Charlie Manuel as the team’s new hitting coach officially puts manager Gabe Kapler on the hot seat.

After a disappointing series loss over the weekend that included the Phillies falling to fourth place in the division, rumblings started to emerge that a change in the coaching staff was coming. While the coach fired was not surprising, his replacement certainly was.

The team announced Tuesday that hitting coach John Mallee was fired and former manager Charlie Manuel will take over the position for the rest of the season. General manager Matt Klentak said he does not expect any more changes at this time, but the hire still puts manager Gabe Kapler on the hot seat.

Kapler was already on thin ice after the late-season collapse last year. The team went from 64-49 on August 7 to 80-82 by season’s end, a 16-33 finish. The same thing is happening again this year, albeit earlier in the season. After getting out to a 33-22 start through May 29, Philadelphia is 27-36.

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The same issues are plaguing the team yet again as the pitching staff has fallen off the rails after a hot start while the hitters have struggled to find any consistency. While the lineup had plenty of flaws last year, Kapler got a much better group to work with after the additions of Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen, J.T. Realmuto, and Jean Segura.

The failure to perform offensively even with these additions is what ultimately led to Mallee’s demise.

In the last two years since Mallee’s hire, Philadelphia ranks 21st in wRC+, 22nd in runs scored, 23rd in home runs, 26th in strikeout rate, and dead last in batting average.

Mallee has received criticism for his launch-angle-oriented approach to coaching, sacrificing batting average for power. While it wouldn’t be a big deal if it were working, Philadelphia ranks in the bottom third of teams in home runs. On top of that, hitting-first players like Segura and Cesar Hernandez both experienced significant drops in their batting average after coming under Mallee’s tutelage.

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Manuel made his name as a hitting coach before becoming a manager for the Indians and Phillies. He is about as far from Mallee as one could get as one of the old-school coaches still sticking around.

If Philadelphia finishes the season well, especially if the offense turns things around, Manuel will all get the credit. If the team continues their fall, he won’t receive much blame as he inherited a terrible situation. Instead, it will be Kapler taking all the heat.

The team finally decided that something needed to be changed, and firing Malee was the most obvious decision. Bringing Manuel back in the dugout extends an olive branch towards a jaded fan base.

It also makes him the frontrunner to take over the manager role if Kapler were to be fired.

Either way, Kapler should be on red alert, even if the front office won’t openly say it.