Arizona Diamondbacks sign Cody Ross...and the strange offseason continues

On Saturday, fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks awoke or at least were greeted with morning news that their signed veteran outfielder Cody Ross (of San Francisco Giants fame in the 2010 World Series) to a three-year, $26 million contract.

If you were like me, it was perplexing.

Why in the world would Arizona sign ANOTHER outfielder. They already have Justin Upton, Jason Kubel, Gerardo Parra, Adam Eaton, A.J. Pollock and recently signed Eric Hinske. They already traded Chris Young.

At this point, I don't think a soul has any idea what Kevin Towers is doing.

Puzzling move number one was what followed the trade of Chris Young. It was trading for reliever Heath Bell. he is expensive and is coming off of a terrible year on the field and in the clubhouse. However, knowing that Towers believes that you can never have enough good relievers, you can sort of explain this.

Puzzling move number two was the trade of Trevor Bauer for shortstop Didi Gregorius. Bauer, as strange and stubborn as he is, has the potential of being an ace in the league, being compared to Tim Lincecum, Greg Maddux and more. Gregorius is a slick-fielding shortstop that has questions about his bat. It seems like overpaying for a guy that might not be more than a utility guy. But...you can justify it. Shortstops are hard to come by, Bauer didn't really fit into the way the organization likes to do things and there is no shortage of young pitching talent.

Puzzling move number three is the signing of Ross. This truly makes no sense.

The team already has a glut of outfielders. Ross has power, but does not hit all that well outside of Fenway Park. He is not a good baserunner and not special defensively. He is, though, versatile. Then again A.J. Pollock is versatile, but with a great glove, great speed and potential for run production. Oh, and the kicker. Ross is expensive.

Clearly, you would have to think that there is a trade in the works for Justin Upton or Jason Kubel, but Towers did not say that was not necessarily the case.

It was just an offseason ago that Towers signed Kubel, which was a head scratcher of a move itself, and it turned out to be a very good move. But he also signed Takashi Saito and he was he invisible man in the clubhouse.

So, maybe Towers sees things differently. But with a higher payroll right now and a collection of guys that doesn't scream in the lineup that does not scream "we're going to score runs," it just looks like he is making moves for the sake of his reputation for making moves.

Like anything else in this game, time will tell. But this mad scientist that Towers seems to be is starting to look more like the "scientist" part doesn't apply.