Kevin Towers, whose aggressive approach to scouting, development and player acquisition defined his career as a major league general manager and produced playoff appearances for the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks, died Tuesday after a long battle with thyroid cancer.
He was 56.
Towers, a first-round pick of the Padres in 1982 out of Brigham Young, never made it past Class AAA as a right-handed pitcher. But once he joined the Padres for good as their scouting director in 1993, Towers launched a two-decade career as an executive that saw him thrive even as the industry shifted from traditional scouting methods to incorporate analytics.
He was named Padres general manager in 1995, a tumultuous time for Major League Baseball and the franchise. MLB was still roiled by a work stoppage that canceled the 1994 World Series and delayed the start of the 1995 season.
The Padres’ credibility was even lower, after former owner Tom Werner’s trades of Fred McGriff and Gary Sheffield in 1993 demoralized the fan base amid a 101-loss season.
MORE: What would this MLB offseason look like if Marlins, Pirates cared about winning?
MORE: MLB gets Cleveland to drop Chief Wahoo, now can it get the Indians to change nicknames?
Under new owner John Moores, who purchased the team in 1994, Towers helped fuel a comeback. The franchise was re-made on Dec. 28, 1994, when then-GM Randy Smith pulled off a 12-player trade with the Houston Astros. Coming to San Diego: Third baseman Ken Caminiti and outfielder Steve Finley.
They went 47-70 in 1994 and 70-74 in ’95, Towers’ first year as GM. A year later, they were National League West champions, fueled by Caminiti’s MVP season and also by a classic Towers deal – swapping shortstops and catchers with the Detroit Tigers as he brought in Chris Gomez and John Flaherty, and shipped out Andujar Cedeno and Brad Ausmus.
In 1998, the Padres made the World Series, and Towers’ fingerprints were all over the club, most notably ace Kevin Brown, for whom Towers surrendered top prospects Rafael Medina (a pitcher who never panned out) and first baseman Derrek Lee (who certainly did).
Lefty Sterling Hitchock, slugger Greg Vaughn, second baseman Quilvio Veras – this unlikely group coalesced to stun the Atlanta Braves in the NL Championship Series before they were swept by the machine-like ’98 New York Yankees in the World Series.
The timing was fortuitous for the franchise, however. Two weeks after the World Series, a ballot measure that helped provide the political and financial framework to finance a new ballpark passed with 60% of the vote. Six years later, Petco Park opened.
Despite their sparkling ballpark in the Gaslamp District, the Padres remained very much a small-market club, but Towers' opportunism often enabled them to punch above their weight. He orchestrated one of his greatest trades in January 2006, when he acquired first baseman Adrian Gonzalez from the Texas Rangers, giving up pitchers Aki Otsuka and Adam Eaton.
While Rangers GM Jon Daniels went on to become one of the game's top executives, he was taught a lesson by the old scout on this deal. Gonzalez helped the Padres to the 2006 NL West title and was a three-time All-Star who hit 161 homers in five seasons in San Diego.
Towers' stint with the Padres lasted until 2009, when he was fired after consecutive losing seasons. He worked as a special assignment scout with the Yankees before his hiring by the Arizona Diamondbacks as their GM in September 2010.
One year later, the Diamondbacks won their most recent NL West title, losing a five-game Division Series to the Milwaukee Brewers. In May 2014, the club hired Tony La Russa to oversee Towers and the baseball operations department and that September, he resigned.
Towers' battle with cancer was not widely known beyond a close circle of associates, until Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch scrawled Towers' name on a "Stand Up To Cancer" card during Major League Baseball's annual awareness moment during a World Series game. Two months later, Towers passed away quietly in San Diego.
PHOTOS: 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame class
