Here’s the latest on the Diamondbacks’ search for a new GM following the recent removal of Kevin Towers from that role.
SEPTEMBER 22:
- The Diamondbacks will announce their new GM on Thursday, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter links). Dave Stewart is the heavy favorite for the job, although DeJon Watson is still under consideration. The team will also be promoting scouting director Ray Montgomery, according to Nightengale. In a third tweet, Nightengale says it wouldn’t be far-fetched to see Stewart named GM, Watson hired as an assistant GM, Montgomery promoted and Towers retained in a senior scouting capacity.
- Nightengale also tweets that while a decision won’t come until after the season, a managerial change appears likely given the team’s poor performance.
- Jon Heyman of CBS Sports writes that Stewart, Watson and former Royals GM Allard Baird are the three finalists and runs down some of the qualifications of each candidate.
Earlier Updates
- Gary LaRocque will remain in his current position as the Cardinals’ farm director, the team confirms to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Twitter link).
- The “strong industry belief” is that Dave Stewart will be hired as the Diamondbacks’ new GM, though Gary LaRocque may also join the organization in some capacity, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (Twitter links). LaRocque is also still a candidate for the GM job and he and Stewart may be the final two names in contention.
SEPTEMBER 19:
- The Diamondbacks completed the GM interview process today, MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert tweets.
SEPTEMBER 17:
- Angels pro scouting director Hal Morris did not advance to the second round of interviews, reports Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times (on Twitter).
SEPTEMBER 16:
- Watson has made it through to the second round and is considered a finalist, Heyman reports. One or two other candidates are expected to join him for final consideration.
SEPTEMBER 14:
- Dave Stewart will have an interview for the job this week, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets. Rosenthal had previously reported that Stewart might be a key candidate for the position, but that Stewart could not demonstrate overt interest in it unless he thought he could get it, since he might risk losing his clients as a player agent.
- Tony La Russa is nearing a decision on the finalists to replace Towers with the first round of talks possibly ending by the middle of this week, baseball sources tell MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert. Discussions have involved ten candidates, who Gilbert lists as: Allard Baird, Larry Beinfest, Billy Eppler, Gary LaRocque, Thad Levine, Ray Montgomery, Hal Morris, Tim Purpura, Dave Stewart and De Jon Watson.
- The Diamondbacks requested and received permission from the Yankees to speak with Eppler, but Gilbert reports Eppler declined the opportunity for a formal interview because of his commitment to the Yankees. Eppler told La Russa he only interviewed for the Padres’ opening because he is a native of the San Diego area.
SEPTEMBER 13:
- Eppler will not interview for the Arizona GM job, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets. Rosenthal also notes that Stewart will decide next week whether he’s interested in the position.
SEPTEMBER 10:
- Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine is also now in the running, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. Levine drew some early mention as a possible candidate for the Padres’ recent GM opening, though the club ultimately decided only to interview one member of the Texas organization: A.J. Preller, the man who ultimately took that job.
SEPTEMBER 7:
- CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman writes that Beinfest met with the team on Saturday. MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert also notes (via Twitter) that the Diamondbacks’ candidates include former Astros GM and current Rangers executive Tim Purpura, and Heyman writes that the Diamondbacks will speak to Purpura this week. Another candidate is Red Sox player personnel director (and former Royals GM) Allard Baird, Gilbert writes.
SEPTEMBER 6:
- Two more candidates have turned up in the Diamondbacks search, tweets Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic. Larry Beinfest and De Jon Watson are the newcomers. That brings us to seven candidates, with Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa expected to interview about ten people. Beinfest, the former GM of the Marlins, was also on the Padres list, while Watson is an assistant GM with the Dodgers.
SEPTEMBER 5:
- Candidates for the position include player agent Dave Stewart, Cardinals exec Gary LaRocque, Diamondbacks scouting director Ray Montgomery, Angels director of pro scouting Hal Morris, and Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler, Jack Magruder of FOX Sports Arizona writes. Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall says the team would like to hire its new GM by the end of the season.
- Stewart is trying to sell his agent business and intends to take a front office job, Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports tweets, noting that it’s not clear whether that’s the Diamondbacks job.
- Of course, Stewart does say that he wouldn’t leave his agent business for a job with anyone but Tony La Russa and Kevin Towers, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. (The Diamondbacks have offered Towers a scouting job instead of the GM position, but it’s currently unclear whether he’ll stick with the organization.)
- La Russa says that the Diamondbacks will decide by the end of the season whether they’ll retain manager Kirk Gibson, Bob Young of AZCentral.com reports. “I think everybody involved doesn’t want to go into offseason without understanding what future holds,” says La Russa. “Definitely, by time we get to end, something will be decided.”
Wait, THAT Dave Stewart?
I’d love to see that happen just for the bizarreness of it. Maybe Walt Weiss can find a job with LaRussa after he gets canned in Colorado.
He was once assistant GM of the Blue Jays, with disastrous results.
Dave Stewart’s inclusion on the list is merely to provide comic relief.
Egards! Now he’s supposedly the front-runner. NOOOOOO! Towers followed by Stewart would be sad for what was once such a winning franchise. How I miss Colagelo.
I’ll do it. Couldn’t be any worse at a rebuild than Houstons efforts.
Right, because Houston hasn’t built their once-desolate farm system into one of the best in baseball, and because they haven’t started reaping the benefits of that rebuild starting this season. Good luck with that.
How did the draft go this year?
Pretty well, IMO. Got a couple of big bats in AJ Reed and JD Davis, and got a couple of strike-throwing cannons in Derick Velazquez and Dan Mengden. But you wouldn’t know that if you only pay attention to the national media.
Would the Diamondbacks be willing to give Mike Arbuckle a chance?
Or is he blacklisted for some reason?
Larry Beinfest did well for the Marlins at scouting, drafting and trading for talent. He’s the kind of GM I’d like to see hired by the Diamondbacks.
I think Arizona should look at Al Avila with the Tigers….good connections with Latin American players too
i feel like De Jon Watson is everyones second or third choice. You hear about him going for so many interviews but never getting any job
This topic has been surprisingly exciting. Makes the SD GM search seem ho-hum.
Strangely I have the opposite take. Reporters zeroed in on the two candidates from day one, with one of them being because of his connections to the man making the hire, and it turned out to be correct. The rest seems like a show put on to make the search seem exhaustive.
According to my daily “Top conversations on MLB Trade Rumors” email, there’s a button that says “Explore other awesome conversations on Disqus”. So Disqus agrees with me…this conversation is awesome!
I am not sure why they don’t like to hire in house. Dipoto was an in house guy that left for the Angels and the next one will be Ray Montgomery. The guy has done an awesome job in the draft and he will be a GM somewhere soon.
Maybe they think Stewart will just give other GMs that death stare… “You will trade me Kris Bryant for Didi Gregorius”…
Is this the best Tony LaRussa can do?
Is anybody surprised? LaRussa wanted one if his “guys” and it’s well known he believes sabremetrics is overrated. He was not going to get a moneyball GM type like Thad Levine from the Rangers . What LaRussa fails to realize is that sabremetrics is here to stay and to dismiss it as a fad is a recipe for failure.
Does this article have the MLBTR record for most number of contributors?