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.

Heath Bell left pitching friendly Petco and fell apart compiling a 5.09 ERA and a 1.555 WHIP in 2012. Image: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

They announced earlier today Chris Young had been dealt to the Oakland A’s for Cliff Pennington and infield prospect Yordy Cabrera. In a separate but corresponding move, the D’backs sent Cabrera to the Marlins in exchange for Heath Bell and cash considerations as detailed here.

The Marlins will pay $8 million of the $21 million owed to Bell over the next two years; the D’backs will only pay $500 thousand of the $10 million owed to Young. Pennington is due $490 thousand in 2013.

Basically, the D’backs traded away Young and received Pennington and Bell and increased their payroll by $4 million.

The D’backs also exercised JJ Putz’s $6.5 million option for 2013 earlier in the morning. The D’backs bullpen is undeniably deep now with Putz, Bell, David Hernandez and Brad Ziegler all under team control. However, that group will also cost the D’backs $18.65 million in 2013 (using Zeigler’s arbitration number).

In 2012, the D’backs’ payroll was just under $75 million. If the D’backs stay close to that payroll number, those four pitchers will comprise almost 25% of that money. That’s just too much considering the D’backs still need to address third base, a lefty specialist in the bullpen, possibly a starting pitcher and possibly a short stop if they don’t see Pennington as starting caliber.

In 2012, Pennington had a horrific .215 average, .278 on-base percentage and a .311 slugging percentage. In the two seasons prior, he had a .687 OPS. It’s safe to say Pennington isn’t starting caliber.

But the most mystifying portion of this is the Bell trade. If the D’backs traded Young and used the money they saved on Young’s contract to pursue potential free agents at short stop or third base, that’s a smart move. They could have pursued free agents such as Marco Scutaro or even Stephen Drew at shortstop and Kevin Youkillis at third base. Either of those options is better than adding a seventh inning pitcher in Bell and a bench guy like Pennington. It could have even saved the Dbacks money, too.

Better yet, the D’backs could have used that money to re-sign guys like Daniel Hudson and Ian Kennedy. Instead, they spent all that money they saved on the Young deal plus $3.5 million more to sign Bell, who had a 5.37 ERA last season for the Marlins.

The Young trade marks the start of the Adam Eaton era in center field, which is the bright spot here. Eaton has really come on the last couple of years and could be a high on-base guy in the leadoff spot that the D’backs have been searching for.

It’s still a puzzling move. But it’s likely not the last for the D’backs this offseason.

Follow me on Twitter: @JLBurnfin

Image: Jennifer Stewart-US PRESSWIRE

My expectations, and many others’ expectations, were sky-high coming into this year for the D-backs. They took all of us on a wild ride last year that was some of the most fun I’d had in a long time. It was awesome.

This year was supposed to be better.

Ian Kennedy was going to be the ace he was all of last year, Daniel Hudson was supposed to improve, Trevor Cahill was supposed to be the stud he was in Oakland, Joe Saunders was supposed to be an innings-eater and Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs were waiting in the wings to save the day if one of the pitchers faltered.

Justin Upton was supposed to continue his MVP pace, Ryan Roberts was supposed to hold down third base and Stephen Drew was supposed to return and solidify short stop.

All disappointed.

The D-backs even had surprises like Wade Miley, Patrick Corbin and Jason Kubel give them a boost. But it just wasn’t enough.

They have been flirting with .500 all season long. In fact, I should have figured it out long ago. The Dbacks were just a mediocre team who would stay in the race just long enough to make disappointment turn into agony. But those damn expectations kept me in it. It’s over now, though.

After the Dbacks went 5-5 against three of the worst teams in the league, it’s finally, mercifully, over. They are back to .500 for what feels like the three millionth time this season with a 64-64 record. They are 7 games behind in the division and 6.5 games behind in the wild card. With only 34 games to play, what would the D-backs have to do to make up that type of ground? Their best chance is most likely in the division because even though they are .5 games further behind, there are only two teams in front of them. In the wild card, three teams are ahead of them.

So, the Giants are 71-57. If they play .500 the rest of the way, that puts them at 88-74. The D-backs would have to go 24-10 in the next 34 to even TIE that record. It’s not happening.

So, say good-bye to a season that promised so much.

But there is always next year. And the flipside of the D-backs always disappointing me when I have high expectations is that when I have low expectations, they always surprise me.

So, World Series next year?