Kevin Towers To Become The New GM Of The Arizona Diamondbacks

by vinny cartiglia on Sep 22, 2010 03:52 am in Commentary, New York Mets News

According to a couple late night tweets by Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports, it appears Kevin Towers has accepted a 2 year deal to become the next General Manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks:

Towers name has been mentioned among the candidates to take over the position for the Mets if ownership decides to fire or reassign current General Manager, Omar Minaya. It was first reported by Jon Heyman in a post to SI.com (click HERE to read full post):

Mets people have high regard for assistant GM John Ricco and consider him a future GM, but the team apparently will instead look to someone with more experience for their top front office position. They are is said to be ready to consider ex-Padres GM Kevin Towers.”

He is currently working as a scout and adviser for the Yankees, and was the long time GM of the S.D. Padres from 1995-2009. During his tenure, the Padres reached the postseason four times, while losing their lone World Series appearance in four games to the New York Yankees in 1998.

He is largely credited for assembling the current San Diego roster that is just 1/2 game behind S.F. for the NL West Division lead and only 1 game behind the Atlanta Braves for the NL Wild Card. Tyler Kepner of the NY Times wrote the following in his post “Kevin Towers Left His Imprint On The Padres”:

The Padres’ power bullpen was built by Towers, who also made one of the best trades in recent history in 2006, acquiring Gonzalez and Chris Young from Texas for Adam Eaton and Akinori Otsuka. Last summer, when forced to clear payroll by dealing the ace Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox, Towers brought back the left-hander Clayton Richard, who is 10-5 with a 3.80 earned run average.

The Padres developed few elite offensive players in the Towers era, and it shows in a lineup that still is not overly imposing. But his team-building skills are shining again, which should put him in line for another G.M. job very soon.”

This signing is disappointing to me as Towers was my first choice to take over the Mets GM position, assuming it will become available. His track record speaks for itself and he has been able to put a winning product on the field with a budget south of $70 million. So where do the Mets go from here? Other potential suitors for the position, according to Heyman are:

ex-Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes and White Sox assistant GM Rick Hahn, among others, to replace Minaya for that role. Byrnes and Hahn, assuming they are interested, are both extremely highly regarded. Byrnes helped bring the D-backs to the NLCS championship series in 2007 while Hahn was part of the 2005 World Series championship team with the White Sox.

Rangers GM Jon Daniels is a logical possibility for the Mets since he is a native of Bayside, Queens and has an “out” in his contract after the year. However, all indications are that Daniels likes it in Texas and the Rangers are extremely interested in retaining him.”

With all that said, I think Matt Cerrone of MetsBlog.com (click HERE to read full post) hit the nail on the head when he states the following:

I’m still holding out hope the Mets look to duplicate the dynamic that has been successful in Boston, the Bronx and Tampa Bay, i.e., an older, experienced baseball executive, like a Gene Michael or Gerry Hunsicker, paired with a younger, business-savvy GM, like a Brian Cashman or an Andrew Friedman.”