Only two or three teams have the players to make a Justin Upton deal work, Diamondbacks GM Kevin Towers told MLB.com's Steve Gilbert. Towers added, "We're not talking about getting A-ball prospects back. It would have to be players that could help us in 2011." Towers expects to know whether Upton will be traded before the end of the Winter Meetings (December 9th). Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall predicted, "I think he'll probably be here on Opening Day."
Two GMs who spoke with Towers told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports that Towers is growing more pessimistic about trading Upton. Rosenthal's sources say possible suitors like the Reds and Nationals "do not appear to match up for one reason or another." ESPN's Buster Olney wrote today that the Marlins, Rays, and Blue Jays are thought to be in the best position to make a deal.
We learned yesterday that the Mariners, Athletics, Tigers, and Royals are on Upton's no-trade list.
Assuming Upton waives no-trade status and the Royals make it happen, who could they possibly trade? Alex Gordon, Kila, and a minor league pitcher?
That even seems too much to me.
Maybe I haven’t been following closely enough, but isn’t Gordon awful?
yes yes gordon has so far shown he can be the best minor league hitter in year but not do anything in the big
That’s funny, Ian. Why don’t you start with Montgomery, Soria, and Moustakas, and go from there.
Why not just add Grienke, Myers and Hosmer while your at it.
Maybe the Royals should have already dealt Greinke. He’s not going to Arizona most likely. It’ll be interesting to see just what Moore’s trade philosophy will be with him. The Royals need some impact up the middle….they have Christian Colon and not much else.
It’d be easy to throw names out there…..guys like Mike Trout…..whether that would be possible or not…maybe-maybe not. Someone was comparing Trout to Mantle. Trout doesn’t have Mantle power. A more legit comparison would be Mike Trout to Andy Van Slyke.
I watched Trout rip apart the Midwest League for half a season. He’s totally legit. Whether the Royals go after him or not is certainly beyond my grasp…..but that is certainly the type of return they should be seeking. I just don’t see the value in 3-4 mid level prospects……one stud would be much better. But that’s all hypothetical.
Trout isn’t going anywhere. Angels arent that desperate for pitching and Trout is the #1 prospect in baseball.
Mike Moustakas, Eric Hosmer, and Wil Myers would like to have several angry words with you.
Sounds like all 3 of those guys are destined for corner positions anyway…not like dealing Greinke for someone up the middle would hinder them.
I’m really not saying that the Royals could deal Greinke for Trout……just that THAT is the type of return they should be seeking. Getting a large quantity in return for Greinke doesn’t necessarily equal getting one stud in return.
Greinke is worth a Hosmer, Montgomery, or Moustakas in return to whichever team feels he is the pitcher to drive them far into the postseason. Greinke should command a prospect of that calibre.
from oct 8, mlbtr.. “a scout told jim callis of ba that comps between mike trout and mickey mantle are “actually pretty good”. i’m not sayin’… just sayin’….
So Trout has bum knees and a drinking problem? Not good…
I get the Mantle comparison a little…..but he doesn’t have Mantle power. He’ a 20 homer guy with 50 steal plus potential….that’s not a horrible Mantle comparison…but it just seems unrealistic to compare him to Mantle. He does present himself a lot like Mantle…..
I’m just seeing him turning out more like Andy Van Slyke.
Your not touching Moose…
Soria is probably the BEST closer next to Mo and you think that Upton is worth him AND 2 can’t miss prospects? He isn’t that good…and I seriously doubt that he will ever be worth more than Butler AND Moose are currently. So to suggest that we trade Butler or Soria PLUS two players for Upton is unreal. I bet we could trade Kila and 2 of our better pitching prospects and Arizona would be giddy, but Upton would have to OK it.
As for Gordon, I just don’t want him on our team. His potential has faded in my mind, but he can still play.
I would take Upton over Butler without blinking an eye…
As for Gordon why would you want to move him when he has no value… The Royals are not winning anything this season so let him have another year in the OF… If he can stay heathly for one whole season he might just be okay… I am willing to bet he will hit at least 20 HR’s this season… he might also strike out 150 times but I am willing to give him one more year and see what happens…
I would take Upton over Butler without blinking an eye…
As for Gordon why would you want to move him when he has no value… The Royals are not winning anything this season so let him have another year in the OF… If he can stay heathly for one whole season he might just be okay… I am willing to bet he will hit at least 20 HR’s this season… he might also strike out 150 times but I am willing to give him one more year and see what happens…
Interesting. Royals fans are as bad at evaluating players as the Royals management.
Not all Royals fans… all Im saying about Gordon is MIGHT step it up this year or he may not… but makes no sense to trade him for a bag of balls when it doesnt matter who we have playing OF this season…
one like for you sir!!
Interesting. Royals fans are as bad at evaluating players as the Royals management.
First of why would he remove his NTC to the Royals?
I would say they start with Butler,Duffy and someone else…
But why are you bringing KC into the discussion when they have never been in the discussion, have been told they’re not going to be in the discussion because of the NTC, and because of KT’s latest comments? You make me want to throw up all over you.
I mention it b/c Regardless the Royals have and still are in contact with Arizona about Upton.
butler/montgomery or lamb/ duffy or dwyer…
They’re putting a high price tag on him for sure. Why would any team want to give up that much talent. When I think of the top players in MLB, the last name “Upton” doesn’t appear in my radar.
D’backs should be realistic.
they are being realistic…
Let’s be honest. The D-backs are shooting for the stars right now on a return and why shouldn’t they? Upton is a great talent and locked up for 5 years. However, being realistic doesn’t mean you’re going to wipe out a team’s young, cheap, mlb-ready talent.
Realistically, nobody is going to trade 4 young, talented, CHEAP players who will impact 2011 for 1 guy who has potential to be an elite player but hasn’t shown consistent elite production.
I don’t even know why this is still a discussion. I doubt he will be traded with the price tag they have on him. Just keep him and keep it moving. Wake everyone else up when Cliff Lee signs somewhere.
This whole saga has been weird. I almost think KT just made his comments for attention or something. I mean the whole “we’ll only make a deal that we definitely win” stuff…of course you would. Any GM would trade just about any player if what they got back was a definite win.
unrealistic trade demands= Upton still in Arizona come april
Agreed–He is undoubtedly a great talent, he has youth and high upside but is he really worth stripping any team’s high end talent on the farm and/or major league club?
If KT wants to actually trade him then it has to be for a realistic set of players, where both sides will have close to equal benefit. It seems to me that they should probably keep him and trade some of their other MLB players-not as sexy of a trade but probably more realistic.
With what the Marlins did the Uggla, I can see them making a strong push for Upton, even if it’s just to get back into the good graces of the fans. They could probably afford him for the first couple of years, but when his salary gets up there……..yeah, no way in hell they make this deal.
I totally agree. I posted last week when the whole Upton trade issue came up, that is was more a ‘rattle the cage’ move than anything else. Towers is the new man in charge, and wants to get everyone’s attention in the organization. Upton signed a big contract the year before and had a slightly less productive year than previously, even taking into account an injury. He also mentioned Drew in his statement which didn’t get as much attention because Upton’s the bigger star. My thinking is that this is just away of telling Upton not to get complacent and by mentioning Drew also, shows he’s not picking on Upton. The fact that over ten teams have not been able to satisfied his demands says to me that he wasn’t serious to start with.
I get the feeling Towers did this whole Upton experiment just to get the fan support in Arizona. Now he can tell them about how he is not going to make any moves unless it “makes sense” and they “win the trade”. He didn’t sell Upton off, so he is gaining trust in the fans…………until he deals Reynolds and Drew.
If Arizona fans don’t see the sense in dealing Mark Reynolds(and his 200+ K’s every year), they’re retarded anyway. He’s only owed $12.5 million over the next two years and had a pretty damn good year in 2009, so teams will probably be willing to part with a couple of B prospects for him or maybe one A prospect.Drew I’m on the fence about. He’s one of the better SS’s in baseball and would no doubt land a significant return, and he’s also a guy who’s under control for the next two years at a very affordable price. Aside from Upton, he’s their most tradable piece.The last thing Towers needs to do is to trade some of these players out of desperation to fix that bullpen. They won’t be contending next year(and most likely 2012), so trading your big guys for big-league ready bullpen pieces wouldn’t make sense. The Marlins just went that route and basically got hosed….They may as well sell high on Kelly Johnson though. I doubt he puts up those numbers again, and the Cardinals REALLY want a quality second baseman.
Arizona could have a nice core of players in Montero, Upton, Drew, Kennedy, and Hudson. But then again, there’s so many holes………Towers really is in a tough position, I can understand him asking for the world in return for Upton, hoping a team is desperate enough.
I agree with everything you said. They need to re-build and trading off anyone who is not going to be in their prime when you might be ready to contend, should be on the block. I’m not a big believer in “proven” bullpen arms. You need to grow you bullpen from within, spending big and trading for bullpen help is not smart business IMO.
Cardinal fans really want a quality second baseman, but the team seems to be more focused on a SS. We will see though, I could also see the Cardinals jumping in on Reynolds.
A bit OT, but I really think the Cardinals are winning the central next year. I just don’t see that Reds rotation holding up like it did in the 2010, and I don’t see Rolen putting up another season like.
Despite a rather pathetic middle infield, the Cardinals do have a solid offense. I fully expect Rasmus to improve, and Jay looks promising. I think if you guys could add an effective 5th starter to replace Loshe and upgrade with the SS or 2B positions, the Cardinals would be the favorites in the central.
Hopefully Freese can come back strong next year, dude impressed me last year.
Chapman, Volquez, Arroyo, Cueto and Bailey, Leake, Wood… that rotation should hold up just fine. The Red’s offense is huge, their bullpen strong.Cardinals might have a chance, but they are in no way the favorites.
Glad he won’t be moved, any team looking to acquire him would have to give up too much. He’s a good player and all but it cant go beyond reason..
It’s looking that way, isn’t it? I don’t see any team parting with three solid major leaguers and two top prospects if that’s really the asking price, and Towers isn’t willing to back away from it.
At the same time it’s hard to believe that really is the non-negotiable asking price, since Towers would surely realize that it would be a waste of time to ask for that of any team for any player. Right? Maybe not.
Well Upton does have extremely high value, former number 1 pick, 3 full years in the bigs at age 23.. He’s extremely valuable, and at this point I think Towers was just testing the waters, seeing if someone would be willing to overpay. If not then no harm done and you still have Justin Upton to build around.
I don’t think any team can afford to lose 3 major leaguers and 2 prospects for 1 player.. Maybe a team like the yankees or red sox who are often heavily involved in the free agent market.. but even still, its not enough to justify being ripped off.
Carlos Gonzalez just called and wanted to know why Kevin Towers would trade one of the best prospects to come along in a while.
Carlos Gonzalez put up 4.5 WAR, Jason Heyward was at 4.4. Heyward is 3 years younger and didn’t play in one of the most prolific hitters parks in the game, and it was also his rookie season.
His OPS at home was 1.161, away it was at .775.
There’s no point to all this, really. I’m not part of the ‘Gonzalez’ is a fraud crowd, but I definitely think he won’t put up a season like that again. I’m not even a big Justin Upton fan, but I’d be willing to bet he has a much better career than Gonzalez. I don’t think Gonzalez will have a regression as drastic as Sandoval’s(another player who had a break out year recently who hit for a high AVG and power with little to no plate discipline), but unless he plays in Coors for the rest of his career……Just saying I don’t expect him to be an annual MVP candidate or even a Silver Slugger candidate.
The jury is still out for me on what kind of career Upton has. He seems to have a bright future, but he wouldn’t be the first player to get fat and lazy and turn a promising career into just a so-so career.
Sure. My point is just that sometimes it takes a great player time to develop. The Dbacks and A’s should beware giving up so soon on a player again.
Haren was a young top 15 pitcher in the game with no injury history when the DBacks traded for him, and was signed very cheaply for 3 years. You trade elite prospects for that. Agree that the A’s trading him for Holliday was absurd though.
It might be just me, but isn’t Billy Beane looking dumber and dumber as the years pass. Sure, he played sabreball and won some games…but his pitching staff was top shelf during those years. It just seems like there have been quite a few Jeremy Brown’s in his closet.
It’s just you. Sure, Beane has had some trades that went in the other GM’s favor, but so do all GMs, and all GMs have multiple Jeremy Browns.
Not saying he’s infallible, but let’s just say we both know who would have to add more to their side in a proposed Colletti-Beane swap.
True. Beane is the first to admit that his crap doesn’t always work. The Moneyball book probably didn’t present a 360 degree view of A’s operations either.
I get the feeling that the jays could be a better fit (even if they are still apparently all in on this) if Aaron Hill and Adam Lind weren’t coming off such terrible years. With Arizona looking to shrink payroll, looking to acquire major league talent in exchange for Upton and both those guys being tied down to such team friendly deals, it’s a shame that they probably have next to no trade value right now. One of them could have maybe even helped anchor a deal if they repeated their 2009 numbers. Oh well.
I get the Mariners are the Royals, but the Athletics and Tigers have good chances at being winners in the future. Just wondering why someone who plays for a crap team that likes to trade their superstars away would veto trades to not so crappy teams
Even though Upton has the no-trade clause to the Royals, I’d see if he’d wave it. If I were Moore, I’d trade Greinke for Upton plus a “A” level prospect (mind you a top 10 in Arizona’s organization). The Royals are stocked with pitching but just a few top flight hitters (Moustakas and Hosmer)
You forgot Wil Myers who might be the better pure hitter of the three…
That is true, probably 3 years away though.
I don’t think you know what no-trade clause means.
It often just means that the player is gonna ask for some money to waive it.
I’m with you, but it’s not like that will stop Royals fans from speculating….it’s what they have.
The real question why would he want to waive his NTC to come to the Kansas City…
I hope he really loves Barbecue!
Because we’re both Royals fans and we can always dream! LOL
Maybe you don’t know what it means. It means a player cannot be traded to a certain team WITHOUT HIS CONSENT. So, like I said if Upton would waive his no-trade clause to the Royals, the deal could be done. I realize that’s a big “if”
Considering he already knew who was asking for him when he submitted the list, I would assume that these really are the teams he would not go to. If it was a negotiating position, the AL east teams would be at the head of the list.
Not that I thought the Reds were in on this, but I always kinda thought they matched up well with what the Dbacks were looking for.
me too…you give up one of bailey/wood/leake…add alonso….grendal…. and boom…the reds have a left fielder who will be there for 5 more years…prime reds players will still be there…makes them very strong. but hey…im just a fan haha.
Somehow, this all seems to be a ploy, engineered by Towers to deflate the ego of his young star. Here you have a potential franchise player, a leader, one to build around, if said player takes his “star” role seriously. By all indications, Mr. Upton has been more interested in “profiling” than producing at the level that his given talents call for. We will not know until the 2011 season begins but the odds seem to be weighing more towards Mr. Upton playing in the D-backs outfield when the regular season begins in Phoenix rather than some other city.
its very unlikely but as BLUE JAYS are mentioned as the team with pieces to pull it off
here my offer ( Snider is off limits)….
1. Kyle drabek ( Ace in the making)
2. Zach Stewart ( number 2 potential / closer also)
3. JP Arencibia ( Catcher with plus power to all fields 30+)
4. Adam Lind ( 1B had a down yr but still 30+ power and signed to a cheap contract)
there is no way AA is willing to add Snider, or any of our 4 pitchers in this deal .. we are trying to add not subtract .. i think its a fair deal but it won’t happen
i wouldnt give those 4 players up for upton!
i know its hard buh you have to give something up to get something back …. if we get upton our problems will be solved …….
Upton RF
Wells CF
Snider LF
Bautista 3B
Escobar SS
Hill 2B
Pena/Lind 1B
Manny / Lind DH
Jesus Montero, Manny Banuelos, Joba, Ivan Nova, and David Adams for Justin Upton
I know that sounds like ALOT but thats what it will take to get a 23 year old with 3 years of service time with an affordable contract.
thats what ti will take to get J. Upton .. but thats an overpayment … i won’t be happy if i was a yankee fan but i donno know , you guys can prolly get other pieces .. lol