Who will be Towers’ successor?

by
October 3, 2009

I don’t necessarily agree with the Kevin Towers firing — I think he’s always been a good GM — but you never know what happens behind the scenes. Maybe it was someone else who was the driver behind the Jake Peavy trade and other good deals, and thus Towers shouldn’t get the credit. Maybe he and Moorad simply don’t get along. Whatever the case, I would be shocked if someone doesn’t give Towers a job sometime soon. Of course, he’s owed $2 million for 2010, so he can take his time and wait for the right opportunity. In the meantime, it seems like the Padres could make a really really good decision or a really really bad decision with his replacement:

Early speculation on a successor centered around Paul DePodesta, the former Dodgers GM who has been with the Padres since July 2006. He is in the first year of a three-year contract believed to be worth $800,000 per season.

Another possible candidate is Randy Smith, a former GM with the Padres and Detroit Tigers who is the Padres’ director of international scouting.

If they go with DePodesta, they’ve made a wise move. If they go with Smith, Padres fans have permission to defect to the Angels.


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Dan Whitney
14 years ago

This is ridiculous. Few GMs can do as much with as little as Towers. While nobody is perfect, and Kevin certainly has had issues finding major league hitters, a lot of that the past few years has been a result of the say-one-thing-do-another actions of Sandy Alderson. Towers has always been able to build a pitching staff out of cast-offs, and for that alone he should have been retained. Sandy never wanted to pay for ML hitters, whether that meant high-dollar free agent signings or willingness to take on “signability” guys in the draft. Towers has been the driving force behind baseball in this town since I was 10 and for all that has ailed the Padres since then, Towers was never the problem.

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Dan Whitney
14 years ago

That said, Paul would be a great choice. It’s been very nice reading his blog and getting his inside views, and I feel he has been unfairly maligned for his brief stint with the Dodgers. Given half a chance I think DePo could be a very productive GM. Probably not KT productive, but alas.

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Grant
14 years ago

Who’s gonna be in the market for a GM? Toronto probably won’t hire him. Who else is gonna need somebody? Houston should. So should KC. So should the Mets. So should the Cubs. The cubbies are probably the only ones who will actually fire their guy. Maybe KT could run the Cubs? Good to see what he could do with money.

Maybe he takes the year off and then we see who gets fired during the next season.

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tantamount
14 years ago

given randy’s track record in detroit (a five year plan that got changed biannually, gross incompetence and dishonesty, and an unusual fetish for holding a radar gun in his hands for no apparant reason)…

i really can’t believe anyone thinks randy will ever get another shot at being a gm.

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