SAN DIEGO ---- Kevin Towers is already planning his return to baseball, perhaps as soon as December.

For now, however, the former Padres general manager is enjoying many of the activities he previously had to forgo because he was attached to his cell phone and running a baseball team.

Towers said Saturday that he has been taking weekend trips with his wife, Kelly, playing golf and trying to get into good shape by doing Pilates.

"It's been great," said Towers, who is under contract with the Padres through the 2010 season. "I'm basically doing whatever in the hell I want to do. ... It's nice being on the golf course and not having to check your Blackberry every five or 10 minutes."

Towers promised that his vacation won't last long. His phone has been ringing constantly, with general managers offering any and all positions: assistant GM, special assignment duties and scouting jobs. One baseball source said Towers' reputation and networking skills are affording him seemingly limitless opportunities.

"People are calling him to ask for advice," the source said. "It won't be a case where he will go in and be cutting people up from behind. There wouldn't be many guys worried about him because he'll do the right thing. Kevin could go virtually anywhere right now."

Towers appears destined to land with an American League team. He has good offers from the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, for whom he would likely work for expenses only, according to sources, in order to not void his contract with the Padres. Towers said he wants to work with an AL club because he has spent his entire career in the National League.

"It's not that I don't know the AL," Towers said. "But that's not where my focus was. I want to learn how to construct a club from an AL perspective."

Several sources believe Towers will select the Yankees because of his friendship with GM Brian Cashman. Towers said he invited Cashman to San Diego on Oct. 18, and the pair was spotted eating lunch in Pacific Beach. Towers, according to one source, will probably make his decision sometime between the winter meetings in December and early January.

"A lot of clubs call and want to know what I want to do," Towers said. "I want to be a GM's eyes and ears and a sounding board, do some scouting and doing what I want to do. It'll probably involve a lot of travel, but the sooner I get back into the fold again, the better."