The long-rumored departure of Fox Sports MLB analyst Gabe Kapler gained even more steam on Thursday when a nugget floated down the Twitter stream stating that Kapler would be joining the Los Angeles Dodgers front office as their farm director. And while Kapler getting back into the game and off our television screens is awesome for him, it sucks for television viewers.
Kapler quickly became the best MLB analyst on television after his debut on Fox Sports 1 last August. He continued to gain fans last offseason, and his following grew even more during the 2014 season. In the back of all of our minds, I think we all knew that Kapler wasn’t long for TV. He was just too good at his job, and more often than not, analysts like that often go on to bigger and better things.
It happened two years ago when the Cleveland Indians hired Terry Francona as their manager. Francona worked for ESPN alongisde Dan Shulman during the 2012 season, and was a phenomenal analyst. You knew that sooner or later, a team would snap Francona up for his managerial job, and sure enough, Cleveland gave him that opportunity. We’ve also seen it before with Eduardo Perez (who left ESPN, then rejoined the network for the 2014 season), Tony Clark (now the MLBPA executive director), and John Hart (now the Braves president of baseball operations).
Talented people inside the game who take TV jobs often don’t last – not because they stink at TV, but because they’re really good at what they do. That’s not to say that the people who have been on TV for awhile and haven’t taken a job in baseball aren’t good – far from the case. It just seems like the best analysts are only around for a year or two before they move on to bigger and better things. The networks do a great job at bringing in new talent, and I’m sure Fox will to replace Kapler, but it’s tough to keep a truly phenomenal analyst from going back into the game.
Now, the important question – with Kapler gone, who is the best MLB analyst on television? You could ask ten different people this question, and get seven or eight different answers. In my opinion, there isn’t one analyst at the top of the mountain. I really like Fox’s C.J. Nitkowski. ESPN stalwarts Doug Glanville, Mark Mulder, and the controversial Curt Schilling also are a pleasure to listen to. There’s also the Pedro Martinez question, but given TBS’s relatively limited slate of MLB games, it’s tough to get a feel on whether or not Pedro can do this multiple days a week for a full season and stay at that high level.
I don’t know who will stand out in 2015 like Kapler did in 2015. Maybe an MLB player will retire and immediately become a TV superstar. It’s worth keeping an eye on as the offseason progresses.
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