The Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Dave Stewart as the team’s new senior vice president and general manager. Stewart is very familiar to their chief baseball officer, Tony Larussa, as he was the ace starter on LaRussa’s Athletics in the late 80s and early 90s. The team made the announcement via their twitter account.
OFFICIAL: #Dbacks hire Dave Stewart as Sr. Vice President & General Manager and De Jon Watson as Sr. Vice President, Baseball Operations.
— Arizona Diamondbacks (@Dbacks) September 25, 2014
Stewart becomes the fourth general manager in franchise history, replacing Kevin Towers who was fired by the team on September 5th. In addition to Stewart the team also hired De Jon Watson to be the Senior Vice-President of Baseball Operations.
La Russa released the following statement regarding his hire of Stewart:
I am excited to be able to bring in two talented and uniquely qualified individuals as part of our front office leadership team that I feel will improve our organization. Our various strengths blend well with more than a century of experience in different areas of the game and will work together to get this team moving in the right direction.
I’ve known Stew for nearly three decades and his diverse background includes championships on the field as both a player and coach, in the front office and in contract negotiation as a player representative.
Stewart pitched in the Major Leagues for 16 seasons. He had worked in the front offices of the Padres, Blue Jays, and Athletics before becoming a player agent. He leaves his position as an agent to take this position.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy success as a player and coach and really enjoyed my time representing players, but this is the perfect challenge for me,” Stewart said in a statement. “To try and put together the pieces of a championship team is something I can’t wait to begin and I could not be more excited about doing it with De Jon and alongside a Hall of Famer who I respect greatly in Tony.”
Watson has spent the last seven years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, he is considered a specialist in player development.
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