The Diamondbacks officially announced that Kevin Towers will be the team's new executive vice president and general manager. Towers gets a two-year deal plus options that could keep him in Arizona for longer, according to Yahoo's Tim Brown, who broke news of the agreement. According to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, Towers won't earn close to $2MM, as he did with San Diego, but escalators could boost the value of his salary (Twitter link).
Towers, who now works for the Yankees, took over the Padres after the 1995 season and led the team until about a year ago, when he was fired. Jim Bowden of Sirius XM Radio reported this afternoon that Arizona offered Towers the GM job (Twitter link).
Interim GM Jerry Dipoto will not return to the Diamondbacks.
NICEE
Good choice. If anyone can right that sinking ship… well Towers is one of the better choices.
Bad news for the Mets (well, their fans at least).
man u guys r in for a treat…the 1 thing this guy does better than any1 in the majors is finding pitching…He may not find #1s but he finds a bunch of #3s and #4s…something Arizona needs. Also, KT is the best at putting together a bullpen out of nothing, which last I checked Arizona needs ASAP haha. As a Padre fan I’m happy for KT…but also nervous, this guy knows what he’s doing.
Joy. Another overpriced underperformer in the DBack front office. Way to reward loyal and effective in-house folks, guys.
Just curious why you think he’s an “underperformer”?
Jerry DiPoto, is that you?
The last time they rewarded “loyal and effective in-house folks,” Jerry DiPoto traded an elite pitcher for scraps
His first piece of business should be finding a new home the homerun giving bum Joe Saunder!!! What a horrible trade that was
Nonsense, the Angels thought it was an excellent trade.
That was kind of a bum deal for Saunders too as forcing medocre flyball pitchers to pitch half their games in Arizona is cruel.
Maybe Towers will understand that it would be more prudent to trade for groundball pitchers than flyball pitchers considering their home park. Maybe he can flip Saunders to Seattle or Detroit and get a groundballer to take his place.
Although, Arizona isn’t really the place for groundball pitchers either. The grass in Chase is different from most parks, and it doesn’t slow grounders down like other kinds of grass.
Also, a humidor will probably be used in the future.
You’ve got to think that move was at least somewhat ordained by ownership. On the flip side from that move, DiPoto raped the ChiSox in the Jackson deal.
Noooooooo!!! This was supposed to be the mets!
I find fans funny. I remember a couple months ago Padres’ fans were begging that he be fired. Now that they’re in first place, he’s a hero for essentially building the best bullpen in baseball. The D’backs made a really smart move here. They need pitching bad, and Towers should help that cause.
Smart move by the D’Backs. Towers is one of the better minds in baseball, he’ll right that ship.
no good for the Padres because you know why.
I like Towers and I live AZ. I don’t like them together though. I always hope for these brilliant GM’s from small market teams to land somewhere with a huge payroll. We know KT can build a solid 80+ win team with $40m. How many more wins can he extract if given $120m?
He joins Beane and Beinfest as the three GM’s that I wish would go to a big market team.
my only concern with Towers is player development/ drafting skills. Not a very good track record w/ San Diego
I was very happy with DiPoto, he seems to be the next Billie Bean…well you think that when you see the Hudson trade. I hope DiPoto could land as assistant Gm and Gibson stays as manager.