The Diamondbacks enter Saturday night’s game with the Padres at 10-22, the worst record in baseball. Their -60 run differential is also the worst in baseball, even worse than the lowly Astros at -53.
There are plenty of explanations for the slow start, but chief among them is that the club has been ravaged by injuries. Four pitchers have undergone Tommy John surgery, including Patrick Corbin and Daniel Hudson, and slugger Mark Trumbo -- the prize acquisition of the off-season for the D-Backs -- is dealing with a stress fracture in his left foot.
GM Kevin Towers thinks his team will turn things around, but he isn’t sure if he’ll still have a job by then. Via MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom:Right now, he still feels he and manager Kirk Gibson are on the same page with managing partner Ken Kendrick and club president Derrick Hall.
“But they’re both very, very disappointed, and rightfully so,” Towers said before the D-backs played his former team, the Padres, at Petco Park on Friday night. “When you spend $110 million and you’re 9-22 at the end of April, I wouldn’t be happy, either. I’m also disappointed, but I still believe in the core group. I think they will get better. Will I be around to see it? I don’t know.”
Towers’ tenure in Arizona has been controversial to say the least. He traded franchise superstar Justin Upton to the Braves last year and has come out on the losing end of the swap. Towers also made headlines when he fired pitching coach Charles Nagy for refusing to instruct his pitchers to throw at opposing players.