In the early hours of Friday morning, Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers was fired after slightly less than four years on the job. His tenure included one division title, a pair of .500 seasons, and a disastrous, sub-.500 season that was spurred by the highest payroll in club history. Needless to say, his firing was well-deserved.
When you look at what Towers did while in charge of the Diamondbacks, the first word that comes to mind is “confusion”. He took over a team in 2010 that had a great young core featuring players Chris Young, Justin Upton, Mark Reynolds, Miguel Montero, and Stephen Drew. The first player to be moved was Reynolds, who was traded to Baltimore for reliever David Hernandez. Veteran Adam LaRoche left as a free agent (being replaced at first base by a revolving cast of characters before Paul Goldschmidt took over in August), and Kelly Johnson was moved in August for Aaron Hill in one of Towers’ best moves. The 2011 team won the NL West with a very similar core to the 2010 team, bolstered by the additions of J.J. Putz, Hernandez, and Brad Ziegler to the bullpen.
The bottom started to fall out in 2012. Young missed 61 games. Drew was banished to Oakland in August after playing just 116 games between 2011 and 2012. Upton played through numerous injuries and his numbers fell off. Free agent signee Jason Kubel launched 30 homers, but was predictably an adventure in left field. The following offseason, Towers aimed to rebuild the club, and the results were a disaster. Young was traded to Oakland in a three-team trade that brought Heath Bell to Arizona. Top pitching prospect Trevor Bauer was dealt to Cleveland (along with future set-up man Bryan Shaw) in a three-team trade that netted the Diamondbacks Didi Gregorius. Upton was sold for 30 cents on the dollar to the Braves for a package of players headlined by long reliever Randall Delgado and utility player Martin Prado. Veteran outfielder Cody Ross was signed to an ill-advised three-year deal, while starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy got two years.
I think you all know how the story goes from here. Young was bad with the A’s, but Bell remained a disaster in Phoenix. Upton hit 27 homers with the Braves, and throw-in Chris Johnson also had a higher fWAR than Prado, who reverted to his completely average self before getting traded to the Yankees less than halfway through a four-year extension. Kubel hit eight homers in 89 games, and was essentially given to the Indians in August. Ross played in only 94 games, and followed that up by getting into just 68 games (so far) this year. McCarthy only made 22 starts, and made 18 in 2014 before getting dealt to the Yankees, where he has thrived. Ian Kennedy was traded to the Padres for a pair of relievers, where he’s regained his above average stuff.
Incredibly, the story isn’t over there. Towers acquired Mark Trumbo from the Angels for Tyler Skaggs and Adam Eaton, only to see Eaton thrive with the White Sox and Skaggs pitch very well with Anaheim before blowing out his elbow. Trumbo has played in only 67 games this year, homering just eight times while playing disastrous defense in left field. Bauer and Shaw have blossomed into a pair of building blocks for the Indians. New closer Addison Reed, acquired from the White Sox in a separate trade, has a 3.54 ERA while blowing five saves. Putz was released after just 13 2/3 innings, making him a $7 million sunk cost. Free agent signee Bronson Arroyo blew his elbow out three months into a two-year, $23.5 million deal. Johnson took a step back in Atlanta, while Upton has taken a giant step forward and has reached his potential as an MVP candidate. Cahill, Towers’ big pitching acquisition, spent time in the minors and the bullpen this season, pitching to a 5.06 ERA in 90 2/3 innings in the majors.
The writing has been on the wall for awhile now. Towers took an outfield surplus that consisted of Young, Upton, Eaton, Gerardo Parra, and A.J. Pollock, and turned it into Trumbo, Ross, Pollock, a Parra clone in Ender Inciarte, and a converted pitcher in 27-year old David Peralta. Arizona’s best reliever is Oliver Perez, who Towers somehow didn’t trade prior to the trade deadline. Miguel Montero is 31, and is still owed $40 million over the next three years. Hill has stunk in year one of a three-year, $35million extension. The Diamondbacks are likely going to end the season with a top five pick in the MLB Draft, and are already on the hook for over $67 million in 2015 – without including arbitration raises for nine players (a number that will probably decrease after players are nontendered).
Whoever ends up taking over the Diamondbacks will have an interesting task ahead of them. They have a franchise player at first base in Goldschmidt, but also have three (arguably five) contracts that are unmovable (Arroyo, Ross, Cahill, with Montero and Hill falling in the “arguably” category). The Diamondbacks have three interesting middle infield prospects in Gregorius, Nick Ahmed, and Chris Owings. Pitching prospects Archie Bradley and Braden Shipley are more than interesting, and both will likely see the majors next year.
This isn’t going to be a massive rebuild in the same vein as the Astros and Cubs. But in a three-year span where the Diamondbacks should have been contending for the NL West crown, they never finished closer than 11 games to first place. That’s inexcusable, and Towers should have been fired. He could have nearly done everything better, and while he didn’t exactly burn the franchise to the ground, he came pretty damn close.
