Early on this offseason, Justin Upton was the subject of trade rumors as a new regime in Arizona gauged the market on their young star. Upton addressed those rumblings this afternoon at Chase Field, writes Nick Piecoro of The Arizona Republic.
"At the time, I was prepared to deal with whatever happened. I want to be here. I’m here, I want to play for the D-Backs. I’m not ready to leave. I’m going to be a part of this team this year and hopefully we can turn this thing around," said the 23-year-old.
The rightfielder went on to say that he was surprised by the trade talks but added that "it happens to people every year." Upton also insisted that his feelings were not hurt by the rumors and understood GM Kevin Towers' desire to look into improving the team any way possible.
Upton hit .273/.356/.442 with 17 homers in 133 games last season, a down year by his standards. Many teams inquired on the youngster this winter but all were unwilling to meet the D'Backs' asking price.
I think the odds of the D-Backs “turn(ing) this thing around” this year are slim and Upton will get traded eventually.
maybe he should start turning it around… by becoming the superstar he’s supposed to be.
In fairness, he had a great 2009 and even though 2010 was a “down year by his standards” he still had a .799 OPS and was almost a 4 WAR player. And the fact that a 23 year old HAS a standard that those stats don’t live up to is impressive.
@brad – upton most likely can’t be traded for his full potential/value. as a phoenix native and longtime local fan i guarantee this guy walks the same way amare stoudemire did before him. dbacks will be lucky to get a comp pick when it’s all said and done.
You may be right. That is almost surely why he couldn’t get traded THIS off-season. If he has a year like he did in 2009 I’m sure some team would be willing to give up some pretty good prospects for him seeing as he would be under team control for 3 more years for a little less than $32M.
I have no reason to believe he doesn’t mean it. But even if he doesn’t, it’s still the right thing to say.
If traded, the package for Upton may be the biggest group of top-notch prospects sent anywhere, in any deal, ever.
He is still the age of a prospect himself, and already an All-Star, and signed for a very long time to a very team friendly contract. That might not be the perfect trade chip, but I cannot recall one more potentially compelling than Upton.
Maybe, but that’s if he can bounce back this year. If he disappoints again, the package is going to be less than stellar.
He’s really only had one great season. Yeah, he was a 4 WAR player in 2010 despite the dip in almost every offensive category, but a lot of that was from his stellar defense. I completely believe in his defense, but I’m still not sold on him being this offensive force many are expecting.
He’s increased his K’s ever year in the bigs, and while he does walk at an above-average clip, I don’t think he’ll ever get his K’s down below 120 or so over the course of a full season. There’s still reason to believe he’ll bounce back, but I wouldn’t be surprised in the least if he tops out at a .285, .350, .440 line……which is still good and with great defense and good speed, so he’ll likely always be valuable. I’m just not betting on him becoming a super star is all. Oh, and he’s yet to play more than 138 games in a season. So if his injuries continue, that’s gonna obviously hurt his value.
In all honesty, if Jason Heyward has just an even slightly better 2011 compared to his 2010 performance……I think he’d bring back more than Upton would if traded.
You’ve got a pretty special player when a .273/.356/442 year at 23 is considered a down year.