Tony La Russa first shook up the Diamondbacks’ front office by firing general manager Kevin Towers and replacing him with Dave Stewart, and now he’s shaking up the coaching staff by firing manager Kirk Gibson and bench coach Alan Trammell.
Gibson constantly talked about stuff like “grittiness” and under his watch the Diamondbacks specialized in policing the actions of other teams despite gaining a reputation in some circles for playing dirty themselves. And they weren’t actually much good, going 81-81 in each of the past two seasons before falling to 63-96 this year for the worst record in baseball.
La Russa (and Stewart) can now bring in their own manager and complete the overhaul that everyone assumed was coming the moment he was hired as the Diamondbacks chief baseball officer in May.
UPDATE: Steve Gilbert of MLB.com reports that Trammell will stick around in the short term and manage the Diamondbacks this weekend.
