"Kevin Towers stepped out of the Pfister Hotel and into the biting wind here on Thursday morning, ready to head home after three days at the general managers' and owners' meetings.

While he couldn't say it was a week full of accomplishment, the Diamondbacks general manager didn't necessarily have a lot to do. His organization is highly regarded throughout the game, seen as a team on the rise, and Towers said multiple times this week that the beauty of his situation is that he'd be comfortable with the status quo if the right moves don't present themselves.

"I laid some groundwork, which is good, leading up to the winter meetings," Towers said, referring to the off-season's main event, to be held this year in Dallas in early December.

"It was informative. I learned a lot. We'll see what happens."

Towers said he still doesn't have a great read on the starting pitching market; it's too early in the off-season for him to comfortably say what he expects to do, be it signing a free agent, trading for an arm or neither, in which case he'd be more likely to retain left-hander Joe Saunders, who is a non-tender possibility.

Opposing GMs seem to view the Diamondbacks as a team moving in the right direction in ways beyond just the standings.

"I think they've got what a lot of teams strive for," said Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo, formerly the Diamondbacks' scouting director. "They've got waves of their own coming. They've got good players coming that they'll have control over financially and that will give them a lot of options. It's a good place to be.""