The Blue Jays have officially struck a deal to acquire outfielder Melvin Upton from the Padres. Young righty Hansel Rodriguez constitutes the return to San Diego, which will pay all but $5MM of the approximately $22MM owed to Upton this year and next, Heyman tweets.
The swap is likely to be finalized today, says Rosenthal, who had reported last night that Toronto was in the lead to add Upton. Among the other teams said to have had real interest were the Orioles and Indians, each of whom will need to look elsewhere to bolster their outfield reserves.
Upton brings a versatile, right-handed-hitting bat to the Jays’ alignment. He is only checking in with a league-average batting line on the year — with a .256/.304/.439 slash that reflects the fact that he has struck out in nearly one-third of his plate appearances — but has had a bigger impact than that. Upton has also swatted 16 home runs and swiped twenty bags, both of which are more reminiscent of his top-level output in those departments from his days with the Rays.
With a quality glove that is plenty capable of handling center field, Upton figures to be a frequently-used semi-regular for Toronto. The team hasn’t received much with the bat from center fielder Kevin Pillar this year, though he is a top-flight defender. Left fielder Michael Saunders has been a revelation, but despite his quality numbers this season against lefties could probably stand to take a rest from time to time when a southpaw is on the hill. And star slugger Jose Bautista is likely to have the most impact — both down the stretch and, the team hopes, in the playoffs — if he isn’t used too heavily in right field. Upton will likely see action in all three spots, relegating Ezequiel Carrera to a fifth-outfielder role (if he is able to hold onto his roster spot).
Upton is playing in the second-to-final season of the big contract he inked with the Braves before the 2013 campaign, which was shipped to San Diego two years later. He has $5.63MM left on his salary for the present season, with $16.45MM still to come for 2017. Given that San Diego will be picking up most of the tab, it seems reasonable to think both that the market demand for Upton wasn’t all that great and that the Padres put a reasonably substantial value on the rights to Rodriguez.
[Related: Updated Blue Jays and Padres Depth Charts]
With larger-salaried players including Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, and R.A. Dickey set to hit the open market after the year, Toronto may well have somewhat greater payroll flexibility for 2017 than it does at present. It also now has one more piece of its outfield puzzle in place for the coming season, with not only Bautista but also Saunders soon able to go to the highest bidder (even if they do so with a qualifying offer hanging over them).
For the fourth-place Padres, the deal continues a broader sell-off as the organization’s attention shifts to acquiring young assets. Certainly, the fact that Upton was able to restore his stock constitutes a big win for San Diego, as his contract was significantly under water when he was included as part of the financial machinations in the pre-2015 Craig Kimbrel swap. Beyond the prospect value coming directly from this deal, San Diego GM A.J. Preller ought to be able to redirect the cost savings on Upton’s deal to buy-low veterans who could themselves turn into trade chips.
Rodriguez, 19, adds another potential future hurler to the system. He signed out of the Dominican Republic for a $330K bonus in February of 2014, as Ben Badler of Baseball America reported at the time, and has continued to show an intriguing arm since that time, as BA’s Josh Norris has noted. Currently, Rodriguez is pitching in the Rookie-level Appalachian League, where he owns a 3.62 ERA in 32 1/3 innings over six starts, with 7.2 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9. He has risen to 18th on MLB.com’s most recent ranking of the Jays’ system, with the prospect evaluators noting that he has a very live arm but still needs a lot of polish to his mechanics and secondary offerings.
Even better, clearing Upton from the roster allows the Friars to allocate playing time to some top prospects who seem prepared for a shot at the big leagues. Hunter Renfroe is presently laying waste to Triple-A pitching at 24 years of age, so he’d certainly qualify. And the younger Manuel Margot has his own case for a promotion; he’s hitting well in his first go at the highest level of the minors and could represent a near-future option in center.
Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported that Upton had been traded to Toronto (via Twitter); Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reported the return and financial details (Twitter links). Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca first reported in a tweet that a significant portion of Upton’s salary would remain with the Padres.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Don’t worry Os, Markakis is still available to you.
Side note, never thought Melvin would turn it around like he did. Wish he could have played this well in Atlanta, but glad to see him get there.
If you subtract his Atlanta seasons he’s been pretty much the same player.
You gotta wonder what the Braves were telling him to do.
This.
It baffles me how bad he was in Atlanta. Him and Dan Uggla. Then they get traded or go onto other teams and suddenly remember how to baseball.
Dan Uggla was still terrible when he left the Braves
I suppose, but he seemed to make contact more after he left. I’m just bitter lol
“Suddenly remembered” or “Stopped listening to bad advice from coaches”???
Reportedly, Wren emphasized to Upton to just be yourself. I don’t know how long that went for, but playing alongside his younger star brother (Justin) who Melvin was making more than and playing terribly, you’ve got to wonder about the pressure. It was Atlanta’s largest free agent contract ever, and he was never going to be a star on a team with Heyward, Justin, Gattis, Kimbrel and more. I don’t think he ever found his identity, and Fredi Gonzalez has never been known to utilize guys according to their niches (aka manage them).
Agreed 100% Run. Look at Shelby Miller right now, I think his problem is “between his ears.” The expectations placed on him and Grienke have obviously taken a toll.
Agreed cdb29349, no idea what happened, seems like pressure.
O’s don’t need an outfielder.
With Kim back today and with Jones and Trumbo occupying the other 2 outfield spots why exactly do the Orioles need another outfielder? Could be they were just driving up the price for the Blue Jays.
Very true, but never sure how Kim will fair upon return. And doesn’t seem like Jays drove that price up too high. $5M for year and a half of Upton.
If so then the Orioles failed miserably. The Padres paid $17 million for a C level prospect in this trade. Apparently, the Orioles believe they do need an outfielder or they would not have been even discussing trading for Upton.
O’s don’t really need another OFer, but man I wish they were able to get rid of Ubaldo.
Reimold and rickard are both 4th outfielders and trumbos better off as the dh, they kinda do need another one imo
If they move Trumbo to DH, what do they do with Alvarez?
Alvarez is a guy I hate for absolutely no reason, so I’d say dfa him. But he’d probably be better as a pinch hitter late in games down the stretch. He’s been a tad below league average this year
He has like about 20 homers and would you rather have him or markakis
Agreed the O’s need an OF and a SP. A deal with the Padres where they got at least 1 piece AND dumped Ubaldo looked too good to be true. Curious to know who the A ball player was SD got if they agreed to eat much of Upton’s contract. Sounds like a bad move for them.
He has 12, 20 pushing it man
I would take a Ubaldo for Markakis 1 for 1 swap.
12 in 98 games is on a pace for 19.84 in 162 games so 20 is pretty obtainable.
Ya but the guy said he has 20, hes pretty far off
Still can trade them for Jays. Asking price would be about the same? 10-20 type ranked prospect?
Right, Reimold and Rickard are both 4th OF types and that’s currently the role they have on the Orioles. Neither of them plays full time. The regular OF is Kim/Jones/Trumbo. It’s not really that big of an area of need on the Orioles, honestly. Kim/Borbon, Jones, and Trumbo/Reimold is good enough to not waste the small amount of prospects they have to upgrade. They managed to carry Cruz in the OF all of 2014 and it never was too massive of an issue. Rickard will likely be out until September with his thumb injury, but Borbon is a better defender and better on the base paths anyway. I’d try and focusing on upgrading elsewhere. The main goal here was for the O’s to get rid of Ubaldo.
I’m pretty sure this is where every Orioles fan is this morning. The prospect of getting rid of Ubaldo and acquiring someone who can swing a bat well and has decent back up skills in the OF was too good to be true. That would’ve been a longer term look since Trumbo isn’t coming back next year and it would have given Jones time off or at least let him DH occasionally. Oh well, I’m guessing Ubaldo doesn’t make it out of Spring Training next year. His mechanics need massive work and the Orioles don’t have the staff (or psychologists) to fix that. Nice guy, but he needs to go.
Upton is also under contract for next year, so The Jays are hedging their bets on Jose Bautista with this move.. A move to Rogers from pitcher friendly Petco will probably do something to improve his batting line too.
Should improve his odds at 30/30? Any high ceiling Toronto A-ballers Preller and Co. might have targeted?
Sean Reid-foley and Anthony Alford are both top 100 so I doubt either of them. Last years first rounder Jon Harris who was leading rookie ball in ERA before he was called up. And Richard urena, who is the 6th in torontos prospects I believe. If you get any of these, you defiantly win this trade, unless the Padres are eating all of the money
Sounds like wins all around for the Blue Jays. Protection is Bautista (and Saunders) leave. Great defenders with a good bat. Cost of a minor leaguer who is very young and has a long ways to go. Not bad at all.
BJ is now a Blue Jay. I like this move for his speed and outfield defense.
Hope it’s one hell of an A ball player to keep a large sum of MUpton’s contract on SDs books… I haven’t doubted Preller yet, but this is a head scratcher since didn’t MUpton at least rebuild a decent chunk of his value?
I’m gonna guess Sean Reid-Foley if Padres are paying a “very substantial sum.” That would be better than getting Ubaldo and a bleh prospect from the O’s.
that would be something. to give up a guy with Foley’s upside for Upton, no matter how much money SD is eating, is hard to reconcile from Toronto’s perspective.
He is not a great pitcher. Look at the BA pieces on him. Doesn’t have anything other than a fastball. Occasionally he will hit 96+, but not for strikes. Typically sits 91-94. Has a decent 3.06 ERA, but only a 7.2 K/9 in 6 starts in the Appalachian rookie league this year.
The important thing to remember is that the Preller has, in essence, has paid $17 million for this kid. That is more than any other prospect they have signed. If he doesn’t run into the second coming of Pedro Martinez, it will be one of the worst trades in our team history. We lose a possible 30-30 guy off the roster and pay $17 million for the privilege.
Now maybe the O’s go after Peter Bourjos. He’s about the same as Upton (maybe his hitting isn’t as good) and is a lot cheaper. He’s was also said to be a player the O’s were looking at a few weeks ago. Maybe they can get him and Hellickson in a deal.
Wow I feel bad for BJ’s
Which one, Toronto or Upton?
So we know if Melvin can pitch?
I hate this new front office of the Jays. That is all….
16 M for a 750 OPS I’ll get you that for less than 5M but its the BH’s money to waste
You didnt actually read the article did you?
At least he doesn’t have to travel far, just walks across to the other clubhouse.
But the PITCHING boss, the PITCHING.
What about that ? And now you have fewer chips left to acquire what you really need.
Insightful comments, all, especially how far he has to walk to reach the jays’ clubhouse. I like the move for many of the reasons, relief to Bauts in RF, who may or may not be completely recovered from that hurtful injury, but esp that the O’s didn’t hook him.
The Blue Jays gave up nothing and pay nothing for a guy on pace for a 30/30 season and you are complaining that now they have no prospects to get pitching? Are you serious?
My point is that outfield is not a weak spot for the Jays right now. Pitching, particularly in the bullpen is the weak spot. No doubt Upton is a good player but the three regulars are pretty good as well.
Meanwhile the bullpen has lost almost as many games as the starters have. The list of successful playoff teams in that situation is pretty short.
Thank god Toronto saved Baltimore from themselves. Hyun Soo Kim is who I expect to the be the LF come playoff time. Buck brought him along slowly as he adjusted to America but he’s slashing .329/.410/.864 in almost 200 PA’s now. He’s gotten more AB’s with each passing month until the recent hamstring injury.
Reimold and Rickard make a fine platoon for the other OF spot hitting .270 and .313 vs righties and lefties respectively. Trumbo should be DH’ing as Alvarez is awful. Makes the Orioles better offensively and defensively and doesn’t cost anything.
I agree. I don’t know why they need to add additional outfielders right now, other than to get someone who is serviceable and defensively adept enough to give guys some days off down the stretch. Rickard is doing fine when he plays and I think for the playoff run you’ll see Kim, Jones, and Rickard with Remold platooning and Trumbo will be hitting DH or used rarely to give Davis a day on DH at 1B. Alvarez, barring a sudden revival of his bat, will be riding pine and used as a PH or occasional DH. He’s been unhelpful in the field.
“Laying waste”
Nice.
What a dumb move by the Blue Jay’s. Now we’re stuck with this bum for 2017 as well. They need bullpen help bad as they have blown 13+ games from the 8th inning on this year.
Renfroe time.
Dickerson doesn’t want his time to end the way he’s playing in Toronto. How do they find spots for Renfroe, Margot and Dickerson/Jankowski?. Jankowski already has 16 SB but has been slumping the last week. Would he in Dickerson make great 4th and 5th OFers?.
How did we outbid the Os and the other teams? We gave up Hansel Rodriguez and some cash, and SD pays most of Melvin’s salary! What an absolute steal..
yes, great job by the GM in only giving up Hansel, but holding on to Gretel.
Hahaha, amazing.
1
Lmao. Good one. Hahaha
It is San Diego that gave up cash to pay down Upton’s salary not the Blue Jays.
Hansel… That’s it… Wow!
I wonder if they’ll try to sell high on Saunders (and his .353 BABIP) and ship him out for pitching (or move Bautista). At the least, it’s a hedge against one or both of them leaving next year and provides more depth and defensive versatility this year (Edwin or Bautista at 1st over Bautista or Saunders in the outfield is a moderate defensive upgrade). Not a bad move considering they didn’t give up much but not a big upgrade on its own either. We’ll see if another piece falls.
Not a bad idea to trade Saunders for pitching, but I can’t help but feel the Blue Jays will want to keep everybody and go for gold. QO everybody in the offseason rather than trade them now, which will be Bautista, Encarnación, and Saunders (maybe),
agree plus now they can dh Saunders and take smoak out of lineup and be a bench piece which is what he should be.
Thank god i thought since it was taking long it would be a top prospect
So how long until Renfroe gets called up?
He will be in Toronto tonight?
They need pitching more than hitting!!!!
Too bad Os! We outbid you with an A level player! Hahaha. Go Jays! Cant wait for Melvin to rub it in on our upcoming series.
not even. a rookie league player.
I doubt the end goal for the O’s was to acquire Upton, and more to rid themselves of Ubaldo.
We only owe Upton 5mill next year as well! SD paying the rest of it.. Really the padres couldnt get more than that? Os are going to fall hard.. It’ll just be us and the redsox in sept.
Uptons 31 and this is the 1st good season hes had in the last 4 years as a regular player.
He could regress going from a sub .500 team to a contender. He let the pressure get to him in atlanta.
He was good last year too
“As a regular player”.
He wasnt a regular last year only appearing in 87 games or so and only mustered 205 ABs all season.
Hes already at 344 ABs this year.
Once he returned from his injury, Upton was our everyday CF last year. He has been a regular since returning in mid-June of last year. Since that time he has hit .257/.313 with 21 HR and 29 SB. He is on pace for a 30/30 season this year.
Idk where you got your facts but he wasnt in an everday role till July and then his role reduced towards mid august and september. June, mid august, september missing about half the games is not an every day role.
Here are the game logs from 2015.
cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/players/game-log/20…
12 or so games in june he had 2 or less at bats when he officially came back.
13 or so games in august he had 2 or less at bats.
20 or so games in september he had 2 or less at bats.
And thats counting at bats in games where he didnt have walks that equated to 3 or more at bats.
He wasnt a regular. Nice try though.
You act like Upton is Mike Trout. The O’s didn’t really lose out on much by not getting Upton. He might help the THIRD PLACE Blue Jays but he’s not a game changer.
As an O’s fan I hate to admit but this is a good move by the Jays. He gives you options and you keep him away from the O’s. His contract is terrible but seeing that SD is covering most all of it I can’t believe the O’s couldn’t have offered a better package. This is a steal for Toronto. That said, your pitching still sucks…not that ours is much better.
The Jays have the best ERA in the AL East and 3rd best in the AL. Not sure how you conclude from that that their pitching sucks.
Our pitchings amazing, we only really need a good reliever and were set
TD272 I’m not a Jays fan – Far from it – But before you people post stupid stuff you really need to do your home work. Jays are #3 in pitching in the AL and #8 in MLB.
I watch stats every morning. JFYI – Before you get called out on it and look stupid on a board I save you the embarrassment.
To be fair, I probably shouldn’t say they suck – but I am looking at what can be expected the rest of the year and if they move Sanchez to the pen as has been reported they have a huge hole in the rotation. Estrada is a really good pitcher. Happ’s numbers are great this year but I’m not sold on him – and Dickey and Stroman are mediocre at best. I take your point they don’t suck but the rotation needs help if they decide to limit Sanchez.
Still, it’s hard to say stromans mediocre at best. Over the past month, he’s thrown 1 bad start and went 8 innings twice. I’m pretty sure that’s closer to the real Marcus stroman, not the 4.90 ERA pitcher.
Problem with Toronto’s SP is that Sanchez is already 40 innings past his MLB high and likely won’t be starting come Sept/Oct. Estrada is 33 and its unlikely he suddenly got this good. His 4+ FIP and crazy low babip (.203) suggest he’s due for some regression. He’s never gone past 181 innings in the majors. Stroman is 4 innings from his MLB high as well. Happs career high is 172 which he’s on pace to blow past also.
Guess what I’m saying is they don’t have a single sure thing in their rotation, all of them have injury or innings concerns and they have a bottom third bullpen in the AL. They’ve been great so far this year but most people expect that to even out.
Stroman, mediocre? Good one, thanks for the laugh.
Not a huge fan of this deal as a padres fan. Paying $17 mill left on his contract?
Would of rather traded for ubaldo and some prospects with the chance of ubaldo rebounding and regaining some value in a contract year- have a good season, get paid would be my message.
Upton jr and $17 mill for one prospect? Would of liked to see angel perdomo added to the deal, plus another prospect for eating that much salary.
Doesn’t seem like a great deal, but you have to realize Preller knows the market and it’s probably the best deal offered.
Few observations though.
-Prospect is another plus arm to add to the depth
-Padres save 5 million and odds are they could have saved more money by taking lesser prospect, but valued prospect more.
-Frees a spot for young players to play more
-Considering Upton was considered dead weight when he arrived, getting anything is a win.
Preller has not proven he knows diddly. He just paid $17 million for a borderline prospect. That is FAR MORE than he did for any other prospect in the Intl FA market. Far more than he did for any draft pick. Yes, he saved a piddling $5 million, but he also gave up his 2nd best player in terms of WAR.
What Upton was considered when he arrived has ZERO bearing on what he is delivering NOW. So no, this is not a win. It’s a HUGE loser.
If you give up real value, in this case, a player on pace for a 30/30 season, then you get real value in return. Preller got a rookie level prospect who is not in the BA Top 200 prospects. A kid who sits 91-94 and has no secondary pitches projected as a plus pitch. His ceiling is projected by BA as a back of the rotation starter.
Unless Rodriguez turns into the 2nd coming of Pedro Martinez, this will end up being one of the worst trades in our franchise history.
Easy now it won’t be one of the worst in our franchises history. You’re overreacting. U are forgetting about cashner for rizzo and kluber for Ryan ludwick. And that’s only in recent years
Actually, the contracts he gave out to some were above $17milliom due to 100% luxury tax on the contract.
The lefty who got $11 million actually cost $22 million.
But, 22>17.
Jim Edmonds for David Freese was pretty awful for the Padres as well.
A couple more BJ trades and he’ll only cost the last team in line what a typical namesake (his of course) would cost!
Head scratcher for me too. 5 million saved is a lot of money for the average Joe. But, in baseball terms, not really.
Ask yourself this way: Save 5 million and get Ubaldo or save 5 million and get a A ball SP your scouts love?
Padres have talent at A levels and just went big in draft and huge in international signings. Espinoza who they got for Pomeranz may be the #1 prospect in all of baseball to start next season and at worst, he will be top 10 with graduations coming from some above him (currently #14), and scary truth is it’s hard to rate him ahead of Morejon,Margot and even Renfroe on team list (Morejon dominated the team USA with 12k’s… Who does that?). Ona would be top 3 on some teams list.based off of batting cage performances but a BA writer in their hot sheet chat said Padres aren’t top 3 but maybe top 10 farm but I don’t think he truly considered how much value Preller has added to their farm this summer? Plus the growth in top farm of numerous players Margot, Hedges and Renfroe have all improved; half a dozen other guys like Urias are starting to show impact.. For a long time people said Hedges could be top defensive catcher but will never hit; now he’s mashing in AAA and people are starting to say he can be a complete catcher and leader. Preller has done a great job winning nearly every deal with the Myers for Ross + Turner to be determined. But he’s done excellent keeping Hedges, Renfroe and getting guys he and his team want for what he inherited. Padres aren’t going anywhere this year but when Hansel is ready, I think the Padres will be a very good team. Hang in their Padres fans, you hung through this rant. :).
I love this move a 20/20 guy with good defence and arm (8 assists this year) can play centre, Pillar has played nearly every inning this year and last. You get him for 5 million, hard to get much for that, he helps your playoff push this year and protection for next year. Awesome.
$5 million for the rest of this season and all of next.
As a Padre fan, I’m scratching my head about this trade. The only positive coming from it is that we free’d up room to allow Dickerson/ Jankowski to play more.
Upton re-established enough value to at least get half of the rest of his contact covered plus a top 10 prospect. Not 1/4 of the contact and the number 18 prospect in a teams organization.
So let’s do the math, The Blue jays get Upton for 5 million through the end of next year. Let’s compare it to him being a free agent in the open market, this trade is basically saying he wouldn’t command a 2 year 6 million dollar deal with his current production? Cmon now. De Aza got that in this free agent class and Upton is far more valuable than him.
Ughhh, man this is frustrating being a fan of this organization.
Preller just paid $17 million for a borderline prospect and gave up a player on pace for a 3 WAR and a 30/30 season. Stupid is putting it mildly.
This seems like a pretty good trade, especially considering the market. The Padres are still on the books for a lot of Upton’s contract, but at least they got an interesting prospect in return. Cashner and Norris will be up next on the trading block soon.
Also, brace yourselves. Renfroe is coming.
Let me get this straight. You are trying to say that a player who is on pace for a 30/30 season, a guy that has a 1.9 WAR as of today and who is on pace for a 3+ WAR this season is not worth more than $5 million over the rest of 2016 AND 2017 + a borderline prospect? Are you serious?
An interesting prospect? He throws 91-94 with no plus secondary pitches. He isn’t listed in the BA top 200. To top off how mediocre of a prospect Rodriguez is, we just paid $17 million for him. That is WAY more than any other prospect we signed in Internation FA or in the draft.
It may be the worst trade in our franchise history.
If this trade is any indication, we will be sending prospects along with Norris and Cashner and paying the rest of their salaries this year for a bag of balls.
Where are you getting the idea that the Padres paid money for the prospect? That would only be true if they could have simply offloaded Upton’s salary as an alternative, and there’s no indication that is the case.
The Padres were on the hook for $22MM regardless. We don’t know exactly how much the Jays or another team would have taken of that if they could have Upton for a zero prospect return, but it probably wasn’t all that much given what actually transpired.
Feel free to disagree with the deal, of course. If that’s just a rhetorical flourish, I’d only ask you not to use it anymore, because it sews confusion in these threads.
You are spot on and thank you for being a realist on this trade, too many fans try to sugar coat things in favor of their favorite team. Look, the Padres are my squad and I’m not afraid to speak up when thy get taken to the cleaners by other teams in transactions. This was a terrible trade by Preller and any baseball savvy fan who has pays much attention to the game knows it.
What was the point in giving a guy 500 at bats the last 2 years to re-establish his value as a major league regular to just give him away for what we did? I’m sorry but I’m on the same page as you, this could go down as one of the worst trades in franchise history.
If the Jays somehow win the World Series
Definitely not your worst trade. That would be when you originally got him from the Braves.
Are the Pads serious with this? Why even make such a horrible move, if they’re only saving 5 million? They pretty much gave him for free while eating 77% of his salary. Atrocious move, Preller.
Ditto, all of the rumors the last few weeks had been saying that his current production this year all but made his contract appropriate finally and that we could trade him without eating much. I figured that we could trade him and get a top 10 organizational project from the acquiring club, and just pay the rest of his salary this year. 2017’s remaining amount would be on the new club. I’m sorry but Preller got fleeced on this one.
He seems to get fleeced most of the time. We just paid $17 million for a borderline prospect and gave up a guy on pace for a 30/30 season and who has already contributed a 1.9 WAR. This one could turn out to be the worst trade we have ever made.
Yup, I couldn’t agree more. Good ol’ North of the Border fleecing Preller just took.
What pisses me off the most is that we wasted 100 games re-establishing Upton’s value by giving him at bats and playing time for what? 5 million dollars in savings and a C level prospect. Such a joke, I would have rather of seen a bigger sample size of Dickerson or Jankowski if that was the case. At least if they would have produced similar numbers we could have relieved something better in return that what we got for Melvin. If you’re gonna eat the contact then eat the contract, don’t put glitter around it by saying we saved 5 million and got an “Interesting Prospect” out of it.
No we didn’t…
Really happy for M Upton. He has worked his butt off getting back to being an MLB regular. Hope he pays off big for Toronto
He will be in a platoon situation in Toronto. Its a step back for him, but maybe a trip to the playoffs.
Agree and agree ..
Every time I see a Preller trade mentioned, I wonder how little can he possibly get in return. Every time I am amazed at how little he gets. This time, he got a borderline (C level) prospect and paid $17 million for the privilege. Preller may be the worst negotiator of all time.
Just so we have this clear..
If the original proposal for Ubaldo was true, Preller is a bone-head for not taking it. The 5 million Toronto is kicking it would have been what we would have saved in the difference between the Jimenez/Upton contracts, so check that. Plus, they also were rumored to be throwing in an “Interesting Prospect” so check that as well and we would have already received as much as we did from Toronto.
Then, the real kicker is the Padres would have had a veteran arm in Jimenez who has a proven history of doing well in the NL West and would have been able to work with Darren Balsley in the efforts to get him right again, then he can be flipped this time at the deadline next year in a pitchers weak market for a couple more prospects.
I don’t know about other Padre fans but I feel like Baltimore would have been a far, far better option.
The deal from Baltimore could not have been worse. There are not many ways to be worse than paying $17 million for a 19-year-old, borderline prospect. A kid that has maybe a 5% chance of even making the big leagues and who does not have overpowering stuff. WTH was Preller thinking?
No idea what Preller was thinking, you could have gotten the same package from Baltimore but at least we would have had Ubaldo Jimenez as a consolation prize.
We could have opened next year with Ross
I know why it cut off my comment but..
We could have opened next year with Ross
I’m new to posting so this is just a crazy thought:
What if padres traded Cashner, Ross, Norris and Solarte to the Rangers for Profar, Gallo and possibly another low level prospect?
Too wild?
Very impressed with new Blue Jay management. They have shown again how to save money. This trade looks like a big win for the Jays. Saunders and EE are likely both leaving at the end of this year. Yankees and Red Sox will offer a fortune for EE and with the Can. dollar worth 75 cent (and falling). Rumor is Rogers who owns the Jays wants to keep salary at same level (around 140 million) BUT in Canadian dollars. Buy Rogers stock is my recommendation. Jays may be able to keep Bautista.
These new Jay managers are the Jack Benny’s of MLB. Hats off to them. Tigers pay attention.
You betcha, they just got away with robbing A.J. Preller. Win/Win situation for Toronto. Pay 23% of a guys remaining contract who is hitting .260 with 16 and 48 playing gold glove caliber defense in Left field and all they had to give up was their #18 overall prospect who is a C level prospect at best. Hats off to the Blue Jays front office.
No way the Jays try and cut their payroll to CAD$140 million, their window is still open, they’d be insane to just shut it down now and start gutting their team. Why on earth would they do that when they’re leading the AL in attendance and getting huge TV viewership?
Seems like a brilliant move for Toronto, and a dud that I don’t understand for the Padres! Jays got about a 3 WAR OF with speed and who plays good defense for $5m for 1-1/2 years in exchange for 19 year old prospect. Nice job for the Jays and a head scratcher for Preller.
I’m starting to have problems deciding which is the worse front office, Padres or Diamondbacks?! My Braves have gotten the best of both a few times lately, but it’s apparently not that hard since the rest of baseball is doing the same. Upton has all the tools to be an annual All-Star, but the guy has issues between the ears I think. So he performs average at best this year, making him look amazing compared to previous seasons, so SD trades him? My first thought was that it had to be for the salary relief, but nope! Still have to pay the guy $17M. So maybe the return was good? Nope! 1 for 1 swap for a guy in his 3rd yr in Rookie Ball with a career ERA over 4.00! Idiots…