GM Kevin Towers on D-Backs’ hopeful turnaround: “Will I be around to see it? I don’t know.”

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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.

Cardinals sign pitcher Miles Mikolas to 3-year, $55.75M deal

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Rhona Wise/USA TODAY Sports
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ST. LOUIS — Miles Mikolas is sticking with the St. Louis Cardinals.

The right-hander signed a three-year, $55.75 million contract on Friday that will carry through the 2025 season.

The new deal replaces a $68 million, four-year contract signed in February 2019 that covered the 2020-23 seasons and was set to pay $15.75 million this year.

Mikolas will receive a $5 million signing bonus payable July 1 and will make $18.75 million in 2023 and $16 million in each of the following two seasons. Mikolas can earn a $250,000 bonus for winning a Cy Young Award, $50,000 for All-Star election or selection or winning a Gold Glove, $100,000 for League Championship Series MVP and $150,000 for World Series MVP.

Mikolas is scheduled to make the second opening-day start of his big league career next Thursday when the Cardinals host Toronto. Mikolas went 12-13 with a 3.29 ERA last season while helping St. Louis to the NL Central title.

“Miles stands among the top pitchers in the game today, and has continued to provide a steady presence for us both in the rotation and inside the clubhouse,” St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak said in a statement.

Mikolas is 45-40 with a 3.79 in 143 games with San Diego, Texas and St. Louis. He recently pitched six shutout innings in two appearances for the U.S. in the World Baseball Classic.