Feb 24, 2012; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks executive vice president and general manager Kevin Towers during spring training at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Like most fans, I have been somewhat perplexed by Towers desire to trade Upton. I just didn’t think the potential that he possessed was worth giving up on at this point in his young career. Giving up a 25-year-old veteran who had shown flashes of brilliance in his career is a thing many GM’s would be afraid to do, but Towers did not hesitate once his mind was made up to jettison the talented, but mercurial outfielder. He just had to wait for what he thought was the best deal he could get for the right fielder. When the Seattle deal fell apart, he maintained that he would not get held for ransom in a deal for Upton and in getting a solid veteran in Martin Prado and a talented young pitcher in Randall Delgado, both pieces could help the D’backs this season.

What gets lost in most of the criticism surrounding Towers, is that he has been at this gig for a long, long time. Towers enters 2012 with 15 years of experience as a Major League general manager to join the Oakland Athletics’ Billy Beane and the San Francisco Giants’ Brian Sabean as the fourth longest-tenured active GM in Major League Baseball. With 1,207 wins as a General Manager, Towers is one of eight current GMs to post at least 1,200 victories during their career.

Feb 24, 2012; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks executive vice president and general manager Kevin Towers (right) and manager Kirk Gibson during spring training at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

He served as the San Diego Padres General Manager from 1995-2009. During his time as Padres GM, the Padres won division titles in 1996 and ’98, and 2005 and ’06. They missed winning the wild card in 2007 after losing a 13-inning tiebreaker game at Colorado.

He has a vision for the franchise moving forward and it involves a gritty and gutty franchise shaped in the image of his manager, Kirk Gibson. It also involves putting together a lineup that will make more contact and avoid striking out in large numbers. Finally, like all Towers teams of the past, he has put together a very good bullpen and decent starting pitching staff that will have to carry an Arizona team that will be more about manufacturing runs than playing for the long ball.

While he may have lost some leverage during the time Upton was on the market, you can understand what Towers is trying trying to do with this latest trade if you look back on some of his comments when he was first hired as Diamondbacks GM.

“Personally, I like contact hitters. I like guys that have good pitch recognition. Strikeouts are part of the game, but if you have four or five or six guys in your lineup, it’s hard to sustain any sort of rally,” Towers said in 2010.

If you look at the four big pieces, Towers has moved during his reign as D’backs general manager (Stephen Drew, Chris Young, Chris Johnson and Justin Upton), he is eliminating guys who are consistently posting high strikeout numbers. All four of those players posted strikeout rates of over 19% as D’backs players over the last two seasons. The D’backs already have four players, including the newly acquired Cody Ross, who are inclined to strike out quite a bit. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt, catcher Miguel Montero and outfielder Jason Kubel all strike out over 20% of the time, so the elimination of Drew, Young/Upton and Johnson will drop three guys out of the lineup (with the Ross addition) that strike out way too much for Towers liking.

Sep 09, 2012; Flushing, NY,USA; Atlanta Braves left fielder Martin Prado (14) flies out to left during the third inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The players replacing those that are now gone, are contact hitters with very low strikeout rates. Prado is an excellent contact hitter and his strikeout rate is near 11% for his career. That is up near the very top of the National League as Prado is regarded by some to be among the best contact hitters in baseball. Adam Eaton, who will get the chance to win the center field position is in the same mold as Prado, striking out less than 15% of the time for his career. At shortstop, Willie Bloomquist, Cliff Pennington and Didi Gregorius all strike out less than 20% of the time with Bloomquist having the lowest percentage of the three (15.8%).

Towers has pulled off big trades before with success. Remember, this is a man who once commented that he’s a “sludge merchant,” able to move unproductive players with big contracts for more productive players. He built contenders in the mid-1990s by acquiring slugger Greg Vaughn and pitchers Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock. He also twice acquired Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson.

In one of his biggest trades, Towers acquired All-Star right-hander Chris Young and All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez in a six-player deal with Texas in January 2006. That seemed to turn out pretty well for the Padres during their run of success in the late 90′s

Towers has been placed in situations and has had to make do with tight player payrolls, which the D’backs have to contend with. In July 2009, he saved the Padres $56 million by trading ace Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox for four pitchers. Upton’s salary is $9.75 million for 2013 and and sky rockets after that to $14.25 million in 2014 and $14.5 million in 2015.  Johnson’s salary is $2.875 million this season and he is a free agent after the completion of this season. Prado’s salary last season was $4.75 million and he is arbitration eligible going into 2013. The D’backs have said the would like to sign him to a long-term extension. Delgado made $480,000 last season and his also arbitration eligible.

You also should remember that in his first season at the helm of the Diamondbacks baseball operations, the team won 94 games and the National League West Division title just one season after finishing in last place with 97 losses. As a result of the 29-game turn around, Towers finished third in The Sporting News Major League Baseball Executive of the Year voting.

Let’s not jump to too fast a conclusion with this trade as it may turn out that Kevin Towers vision for this team is just what the team needed to win games in the difficult National League West division. GM’s are paid the big bucks to take risks and gambles and not many would have traded Upton. His confidence in doing so leads me to believe that he knows exactly what he is doing and the D’backs are going to be better off for it in the long run.

In a way, it’s a little bit laughable. We now sit with five outfielders on the roster: Jason Kubel, Justin Upton, Gerardo Parra, Adam Eaton and Cody Ross. I know Class AAA outfielder A.J. Pollock has been listed as the sixth man here, but he really wasn’t expected to fit into the opening day picture.

Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Jason Kubel (13) follows through on a solo home run in the 11th inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium. The Diamondbacks defeated the Dodgers 4-3 in 11 innings. Image: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-USA TODAY Sports

On top of the surplus in the outfield, it seems we’re sitting with just shy of 20 shortstops as well. However, the difference between our abundance of players at the shortstop position and those in the outfield, is that the outfielders we have are solid, everyday players. All of them.

With the signing of veteran journeyman Cody Ross, it could very well allow Adam Eaton more time to develop at Reno (AAA) – which wouldn’t be a bad thing. An outfield that included Kubel, Upton and Ross would be strong. With Parra able to come off the bench again it adds another left handed bat as well as a gold glove defender. I would say that perhaps Ross was brought in for this type of role with either Parra or Eaton being the main man, but there’s no way Towers would pay $26 million for a platoon guy? Would he?

So where does this leave us? Most of the rumors surrounding the team immediately following the acquisition of Ross pointed to Kubel being the most likely to be dealt. Teams interested include the White Sox, Mariners and Rangers. There are two sides to this rumor. One, Kubel is coming off one of his best power years in his career with 30 doubles, 30 home runs and 90 RBI’s. He also set a career high in outfield assists (14) while committing just one error all season. His trade value is probably at an all-time high and Towers obviously recognizes this. If he wants to fill a hole on his roster, Kubel is the guy to catapult him there.

On the other hand, if the Diamondbacks are serious about contending in 2013- and I believe they are- then they’d be crazy to part ways with the 30 year old. When Kubel is healthy, he can be counted on as a middle of the order guy to produce 25 home runs with 90+ RBI’s. Sure, he hit a serious rough patch in August but the guy also carried the team for the first three months of the season. The fact that he offers another left-handed bat cannot be over looked either with our heavy right-handed hitting batting order.

The D’backs got more than they bargained for in Kubel in 2012 and should expect similar results in 2013. With a GM that sometimes seems more interested in dealing players just to deal them, you have to hope that at some point he would recognize his core players and hang on to them. At 30, we could be looking at the start of Kubel’s prime. A similar thing happened to David Ortiz when he was let go from the Twins at age 28 and headed to Boston to have some amazing offensive years (I’m going to avoid the fact steroids could have been involved).

This, of course, leaves Parra as the odd man out once again. We arepotentially looking at another year of him platooning and never really getting his shot as an everyday outfielder.This is the type of role that the 25 year-old has stated that he is getting tired of.  Towers mentioned yesterday that ownership has given him the OK to hang on to all of his outfielders heading into the new season, which would put their payroll around $95 million. This is well above their original anticipated total.

But, Towers is known for being a keen baseball mind. Remember, that during last year’s off-season, Towers acquired Kubel and everyone thought he was crazy for creating a ‘crowded outfield.’ That play seemed to workout just fine for the D’backs this past season.

Will this trio man the outfield for Arizona in 2013? (US Presswire: Charles LeClaire)

With the Trevor Bauer trade in the rear-view mirror, many felt that a calm could ensue over the Diamondbacks and any potential roster moves in the near future.  But, the Josh Hamilton signing by the Angels could potentially reignite trade rumors involving the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It seemed as if the dust had settled following the Bauer trade. There was a collective sigh of relief from those who feel like the D’backs need to hold on to the 25 year-old former MVP candidate, Justin Upton. It also appears that the team will go into 2013 with Jason Kubel being a big part of the D’backs offense. By all accounts, that’s what looks like is going to happen. That is until the Rangers come calling looking to try to fill a Josh Hamilton-size hole in their lineup.

There’s no question that Texas will not be the same without Josh Hamilton. With Hamilton going to a division rival, it’s possible that Texas may be more motivated than ever to engage into talks with anyone who will listen regarding a big name bat. That bat being an outfielder seems to be the most logical discussion to take place.

With it being well-known that Texas and Arizona have  been all over the trade rumor front the past couple of months, Arizona may be the first call Texas GM John Daniels makes. This hypothetical call could involve Justin Upton or even Jason Kubel and with Texas operating under new motivations, a different conversation could ensue.

Considering the recent Bauer trade, that seemingly brought the D’backs a potential shortstop of the future in Didi Gregorious, one would think that the Upton for Andrus conversation is dead. D’backs GM Kevin Towers has mentioned that a deal for Upton would really have to overwhelm for him to consider trading him.  Texas is now in that vulnerable spot where they might be willing to over pay.

Then there’s Kubel. After posting some solid power numbers in 2012 for Arizona after coming over from the American League, could the Rangers consider an offer to bring Kubel’s bat to the Texas lineup to aid in the post-Hamilton era? Could Arizona still be motivated to potentially upgrade at a position like third base? Mike Olt‘s name could be bandied about. Would Texas consider parting with Olt’s prospects for a known commodity in Kubel?

It’s possible that the above scenarios are discussed. However, it’s more likely that the dust has in fact settled and we have a pretty decent idea of the Diamondbacks team that we’ll see in training camp in about two months. Unless we’re looking at a significant upgrade or return on value, this D’backs fan is excited to support the current team as it stands, as they face a tough NL West in 2013.