LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Gabe Kapler spent his first four spring trainings in Lakeland, Fla., as he started his baseball career with the Detroit Tigers. Each camp began the same way: Kapler finding a list of rules in his locker and then promptly tossing the sheet into the trash.
“In my opinion, grown-ups don’t like being told what to do,” said Kapler, the new Phillies manager, on Tuesday at baseball’s winter meetings. “They like to be given choices and given the chance to make sensible ones. It doesn’t always play out the way you expect it to, but I think through a relentless approach of educating, educating, educating, you get there over the course of time.