D’Backs, Orioles Discussed Kubel, Upton

Monday: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports adds (via Twitter) that the Orioles have also shown serious interest in Justin Upton over the past few weeks, but talks between the two sides have sputtered. The Orioles are shifting their focus to starting pitching. They've expressed interest in bringing Joe Saunders back recently.

Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun adds (via Twitter) that the Orioles find Arizona's asking price for Upton too high.

Saturday: The Diamondbacks are looking to get young pitching from the Orioles in a trade for outfielder Jason Kubel, but Baltimore has been disinclined to do that to this point, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com.  Arizona has a surplus of outfielders and some believe that they would prefer to trade Kubel than Justin Upton at this stage.

Kubel hit .253/.327/.506 with a career-high 30 home runs in 141 games with Arizona last year.  The 30-year-old is due to earn $7.5MM in 2013 with a mutual option for the same amount in 2014.

Steve Adams contributed to this post.