D-backs GM Kevin Towers will keep doing job ‘until they take away my office key’

To say there has been a lot of speculation concerning the employment futures of Arizona Diamondbacks general manager Kevin Towers and manager Kirk Gibson would be a vast understatement.

The organization, mired in a disappointing season that has seen them go 53-73 so far, has been in evaluation mode since Tony La Russa was hired as chief baseball officer back in mid-May.

Tuesday, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted that the future of one of those men was clearing up.

The #Dbacks currently plan to bring back manager Kirk Gibson for the 2015 season, but Tony La Russa delaying any official announcement.

— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) August 19, 2014

Steve Gilbert of MLB.com spoke with La Russa, who refuted Nightengale’s tweet, so the futures of Gibson and Towers are indeed very much up in the air.

Towers is handling the situation the only way he knows how — by continuing to perform his current job duties.

“I only worry about things that I can control,” Towers told Doug and Wolf Wednesday on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM. “I care about this organization and the future of the organization and I’m not going to stop until they take away my office key.

“I care about a lot of people here. I mean, as a general manager, there’s scouts, there’s coaches — you spend more time with them than you do with your own family.”

Towers, who is in his fourth full season as the team’s general manager, is only focused on improving the future of the Diamondbacks.

“That’s what you’re paid to do — what’s best for the organization, not worry about yourself and do things selfishly that may make you look better temporarily,” he said. “If that was my mode of doing things, I would have had somebody else make the Prado move rather than myself.”

Towers, who sent outfielder Justin Upton to the Atlanta Braves in January of 2013 in exchange for a package of players including third baseman Martin Prado, ending up dealing Prado to the New York Yankees last month in exchange for minor league catcher Peter O’Brien.

“For me, it’s about doing what’s best for the Diamondbacks and hopefully, if I’m here to see it through, great. If not, hopefully people will see that some good things were done and some good trades were made that set this organization up well for the future,” he said.

As far as the report that came out about Gibson (although it’s been refuted), Towers says he’s not worried about that, either.

“My skin’s a little tougher than that,” he said with a chuckle. “If they’re still talking about you, that means you’re still employed. When they stop talking about you, you’ve got to start worrying.”

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