Phillies manager Gabe Kapler did his weekly appearance today on the 94 WIP Morning Show.

You may recall that host Angelo Cataldi called for his firing just about a week ago:

https://twitter.com/AngeloCataldi/status/1141791251253084160

Five days later, Cataldi offered up this in response to General Manager Matt Klentak throwing his support behind Kapler in comments made to the media during the team’s seven-game losing streak:

https://twitter.com/AngeloCataldi/status/1143443238390571008

Right, so this topic was broached on the show via this question from Cataldi:

Q: Matt Klentak came out and said some interesting things this week. One was a complete support of your decision not to bench players after they didn’t run hard. This even happened after an incident with Cesar Hernandez since we (last) talked to you. We talked last week about that play where you blew out your Achilles running hard on a home run ball. Does it frustrate you to have to keep dealing with an issue when you played so hard when you were playing?

Kapler’s full response, after the jump:

Gabe: Alright, I’m really glad we’re talking about this issue. Let me start with this; it would be easy to bench players and I know that it would make a significant segment of the fan base happy. And I would not have to face questions about it every day and you know what? – in the end maybe my job would be safer. It would be easy, but it wouldn’t be right. I see our fans as an important part of what we do every day, but I can’t and I won’t manage based on online polls. I’m gonna make decisions that I believe are in the best interest of our team based on what’s happening inside that clubhouse. What I’m seeing from fans, the question you’re asking, it seems to assume that there’s a lack of care coming from Jean, coming from Cesar, like they’re not trying hard enough. I understand why it might look like that from the stands, watching on TV, whatever. If that were the case, then maybe some sort of punishment would make sense, like pulling them out of the lineup, not playing. But that’s just not the case. Jean didn’t run as hard as he could because he let his frustration come out for a moment, and we’ve all had those moments. I had mine kicking dirt after a temper tantrum last week. Cesar saw a ball that was foul, that was fair, and then was overly cautious and didn’t want to take the bat out of Bryce’s hands.

These aren’t the best decisions, but they’re not the product of people who don’t care, and punishment might make some people feel better for a moment, like they’ve gotten some sort of vicarious, emotional release, whatever. But punishment doesn’t teach emotional control during our most challenging times. And punishment doesn’t ensure that we’re gonna see foul or fair better with more accuracy. It’s a minute of emotional release for fans, and sometimes for decision makers, but not for the clubhouse who continues to see the effort that Cesar has brought for years and who see hustle from Jean, and I don’t want to let those clubhouse guys down. The guys that we have in that room are professionals. They don’t need a big public spectacle to understand the pressure and the urgency and they don’t need a stunt like removing somebody from a lineup, to get.. to understand that Philadelphia loves players who throw their bodies around and seriously hustle. They sacrifice their bodies in the process. And I see every one of our players working their asses to be the best we can be every single day. So failure happens in this game, but I trust the group in that room and I’m gonna have their backs every single day because they deserve that.”

Cataldi: Gabe, is what you’re saying, if you felt the player did it out of apathy, because he didn’t care – you would consider benching him?

Kapler: I would consider anything to get our players to give everything they have. And everything is on the table every single time.

Cataldi: Ok, fair enough. You also said you would deal with Cesar Hernandez with some authority. Can you give us some sense of what that is?

Kapler: I believe that over the last week or 10 days we’ve covered this pretty extensively. But ‘with authority’ means just that. It means dealing with it as a leader. I’m not gonna get into the specifics of any of my conversations with players, but I think fans are seeing the hustle, the drive, and the determination from the whole team right now. And if you look at Jean and Cesar’s play from the last week, you see very committed players working hard for their team. You see their teammates working just as hard for them. So the results are there.

Full audio here: