The Arizona Diamondbacks fired general manager Kevin Towers as the team is going to miss the postseason for the third straight year. The team announced the move on Friday on Twitter:
Nick Piecoro of AZCentral Sports first announced the move.
MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert had more on Towers’ press conference:
FOX Sports’ Jack MaGruder has more on a potential hire:
Piecoro had more:
According to Piecoro’s report, the entire organization has been under evaluation since longtime manager Tony La Russa was added as the Chief Baseball Officer. With Towers out, the focus will shift to manager Kirk Gibson, whose status is unknown.
The report lists Walt Jocketty (Cincinnati Reds GM), Gary LaRocque (St. Louis Cardinals farm director) and Ray Montgomery (Arizona’s scouting director) as names to watch as Arizona starts the process of filling the key front-office void.
Towers joined the team in 2010 and the team had just one winning season (2011) during his tenure. Prior to taking the D-Backs job, Towers was GM of the Padres from 1995-2009.
In an era where advanced statistics are becoming more prominent than ever, Towers had an old-school outlook of using toughness and grit to create a winning team. That approach led to some head-scratching roster moves.
Last fall, David Schoenfield of ESPN.com passed along comments from the longtime executive, who wasn’t happy with the lack of retaliation from his team when one of its own got hit. He said it was something that would be watched closely moving forward.
“Some of them, contractually, it’s tough to move,” Towers said. “But I think come spring training, it will be duly noted that it’s going to be an eye for an eye and we’re going to protect one another.”
It’s an attitude that had previously caused the Arizona general manager to trade Justin Upton, one of the National League‘s premier young hitters, and Chris Johnson to the Atlanta Braves for Martin Prado, Randall Delgado and a package of prospects.
Prado fit the mold of the type of player Towers was seeking, but his talent simply couldn’t match Upton’s. And when the prospects don’t pan out, those types of moves tend to sink a GM.
Peter Gammons of the MLB Network believes Towers’ best option is heading back to San Diego, where he spent more than a decade before heading to Arizona:
The Diamondbacks have been trending in the wrong direction ever since their 94-win season in 2011. Injuries certainly played a role in the subpar results this season, but the talent on the roster also didn’t match up with the likes of the NL West rival Los Angeles Dodgers or San Francisco Giants.
Towers should be able to find a position with another team, as Gammons suggests, but it was time for Arizona to move on. The organization needs a fresh outlook as it looks to become more competitive in a tough division.
No timetable was given for the addition of Towers’ replacement. It’s not clear whether Arizona will try to make a hiring quickly or let the process play out during the offseason, but one can expect the new GM to have a much different mindset.
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