8:07pm: The Giants are content with their current outfielders, meaning they’re not inclined to go after Upton, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. However, Schulman doesn’t rule out a trade, noting it could come down to the caliber of prospect the Jays are seeking for Upton (Twitter links).
6:25pm: The Tigers won’t pursue Upton, either, adds Heyman (on Twitter).
6:07pm: The Orioles are “not a fit” for Upton, Heyman hears (Twitter link).
5:40pm: Outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. won’t make the Blue Jays’ Opening Day roster, reports Buster Olney of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Jays are listening to offers for Upton, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman, who lists the Tigers, Orioles, Rays and Giants as sensible fits.
Toronto hasn’t finalized its roster yet, though the last spot was reportedly down to Upton and out-of-options infielder Ryan Goins as of Tuesday. Notably, the Blue Jays signed utilityman Chris Coghlan to a minor league deal Saturday, so it’s possible he could factor into the mix.
The Blue Jays can’t option Upton to the minors without his consent. As such, whether via trade or release, it appears the 32-year-old’s short tenure with the organization is about to end. Upton joined the club prior to last July in a deal with the Padres, who ate all but $5MM of the remaining $22MM on his contract and acquired right-hander Hansel Rodriguez in return.
Upton is due $16.45MM this season, which will conclude the five-year, $75.5MM deal he signed with the Braves in 2012, and the right-handed-hitter seemed likely to spend the campaign as a platoon left fielder in Toronto with the lefty-swinging Ezequiel Carrera. But, statistically speaking, Upton made a poor impression down the stretch last year in Toronto, where he hit just .196/.261/.318 in 165 post-trade plate appearances. He followed that up with another weak line, .194/.216/.472, in 36 spring at-bats.
While Upton hasn’t performed well in Toronto, the once-valuable Ray revived his career to an extent in San Diego over the prior year and a half. Upton hit a decent .257/.313/.435 with 21 home runs and 29 steals in 602 plate appearances with the Padres, and he combined for nine Defensive Runs Saved and a 2.9 Ultimate Zone Rating in the field. Someone could take a flier on him, then, including the teams Heyman mentioned. Detroit’s only proven outfielders are Melvin’s brother, Justin Upton, and the injured J.D. Martinez; Baltimore tried to acquire Melvin Upton last summer; Tampa Bay, where Upton played from 2007-12, has been looking for outfield help (though the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin tweets the team won’t trade for Upton); and he could conceivably platoon in San Francisco with lefty-hitting left fielder Jarrett Parker.
WHOA
Over the past 4 years he’s hit .218 – .288 – .356
……….and ___________?
I’m guessing that’s a slash line…. not a list of batting averages.
Dang, he’s even worse than I thought. No wonder my mom was happy when the Braves got rid of him.
He was good on the padres tsk tsk
Ok spring training isn’t everything. This guy isn’t Terrible all of sudden.guys can have a bad spring training. Last spring Hyoon Soo Kim went hitless for 23 at bats and then hit above 300 in the majors
I’m still butthurt that they ever even traded for him to begin with. I hope the O’s or Rays sign him so that they’ll be a bit weaker when the Jays play them.
Strikeout. Repeat.
He started with the rays and in his later years with the club they HATED him because of how lazy he was. Toxic in the clubhouse too. They probably wouldn’t take him back if the Jays paid them to.
Maddon got a fair work ethic out of him early on, but his career has been on a slide since his 1st 3 seasons and he always struck out too much.
Many Rays players drafted had bad attitudes. Upton was just another. Several times he non chalanted after balls that got by him while in Tampa early in his career. Maddon would bench him for a game, yet he’d do it again.. Hot dog it to 1st base on a grounder, getting 3-4 steps toward 1st before peeling off towards the dugout.
Ohh how many here were yacking that he was some future HOF player when he hit FA…BAH
Wow now somebody speaks of a player being toxic in the clubhouse as opposed to great. The same question is how would you know?
Won’t get much
Lol
If anything
Just a puffy shirt
Braves? Sorry, I couldn’t resist…
Not sure this is accurate but didn’t he play a little 2nd base for the braves in his time?
nope
Knox Christopher you’ve got the wrong team. Melvin Upton, Jr. (when he was known as B.J.) played some 2b, as well as SS and 3b for Tampa before he ever made the full time transition to the OF. I’d imagine however that infield positions are no longer truly feasible options for him.
… good decision to move on from Upton.
I said they should trade him a while ago. As far as players go making 5 mil a season hes pretty good. He can play center has played short has speed and uses it and smashes lefties. At worst hes a platoon player and defensive replacement late in games. I think the NL is better for him cuz he can be a bench bat for pitchers as well as the above mentioned things. In a perfect world i think the jays wanta AAA pitcher for depth or bullpin arm.
Makes a lot of sense for the Orioles, they need another right-hitting outfielder to round out their bench
Well f*ck me, right? Lol
O’s have too many outfielders
The Padres paid a lot of money just to get rid of him. Now the Blue Jays are willing to eat another $5 million just to get him off the team. His poor play can’t be the whole story with BJ.
I always heard rumors that when he was an ass in Atlanta.
And where did you hear these rumors?
From Adele
I think the Jay’s only owe him $1mil for this year. The rest has been paid last yr and the Padres this yr
Tigers. 3 Uptons. I hope not.
Three?
Kate
Now that’s a trade I’d nut up my biggest prospect for ;)
Yes!
I’m guessing Kate Upton and she would be the best of the bunch
She definitely catches balls better than the other two.
Jays sign Pagan now?
I think it’s more “can we dump 10% of his contract or do we need to eat the whole thing” type of situation
The whole thing? Do you want the other 11.25 mil as well?
Glad we signed Austin Jackson.
same
Who is we?
Tribe.
Curious..where did you see that?
My bad,was thinking Desmond Jennings for some reason.
Toronto won’t find a taker. He’ll be cut loose then find a job in the summer. A desperate team will need a stop gap while someone recovers from an injury. Maybe this will give him a change in attitude.
Makes perfect sense for Oakland, Raj vs RH, BJ vs LH, better defense than any OAK OF.
Melvin never plays another day in the majors. His retirement just got a full season earlier. Congrats.
He was a 20/20 guy last year lol
I wouldn’t go that far. He’s a slightly above replacement level OF who can hit some home runs and steal some bases. 20/20 is certainly far from the full story with Upton (low OBP, tons of strikeouts, middling defense) but I can still see him finding a bench job somewhere.
He was tho. 20 HRs 27 SBs. I dont care about the full story, I would pay $5,000,000 for a guy who could be 20/20. Makes sense for either Cincy, Detroit or Atlanta. Cincy makes the most sense as GAB has short fences.
It’s wild how Toronto has the finances to just throw $5M away.
I’d actually bet on Upton being good in a contract year again. Truly unbelievable move.
I think when the Jay’s picked up Upton from the Padres they agreed to pay $5mil salary. There is only $1mil left for the Jay’s in 2017
No need to constantly update article just say “no team in their right mind will take upton”
Have you seen the month+ updates on Quintana?
Call me crazy but if he gets released minor league deal back to the braves
Token “Braves” post.
Detroit would have traded you either or both of Mike Pelfrey and Mark Lowe for him.
dudes been garbage for a few years. go home bj your drunk enjoy the money you made because your last name was Upton and watch baseball from your couch
The Jays are willing to eat Upton’s contract but not Smoak’s? Of the two Upton is far more useful. Both are terrible hitters but at Upton can at least run and play all three outfield positions. Smoak is an average first baseman defensively and can’t hit either right handed or left handed pitching and can’t run. And he can only adequately play first base.
I understand dumping Upton if they sign Pagan but surely the Jays can find a better first baseman? Upton can at least fill in for people. Bautista or Pence play first and Upton can takeover in left or right and even center to give Pillar the odd day off. Upton will strikeout and hit homers to the same level of Smoak.
I’m no Upton fan but at least he has SOME skills other than the bat that is useful to a baseball team. Smoak does not. – and Smoak had a truly terrible spring with the bat. The fact that management says Morales will play some first is pretty telling.
There has to be a free agent/out of options first baseman out there who is better than Smoak!
I’d like to see the Jays sign James Loney. They are still marginal first basemen but was very frustrated with Smoak last season though he got his power numbers back up. He was a highly touted rookie but has failed to fulfill. I remember Loney absolutely destroying the jays back when he was with the Rays.
The guy is no longer an MLB player… right move by the BJs.
For any organization that feels they need more Ks in their lineup, Upton’s your guy.
All these players that are being talked about here are now support players and won’t help a team win much except depth. I would love the Jays to make a big trade at this point since all the free agent signings worth anything that they would need are done. All this talk about support players means little to winning in the big picture.. Quality depth in the starting rotation is still the number one need followed by more late inning relievers – the current batch of reliever signings includes a few good ones and a few stinkers. Barring trades, Jays 10 games out by trade deadline and this is coming from a die-hard Jays fan, former season ticket holder etc.
“All this talk about support players means little to winning in the big picture.”
Tell that to the Cubs, Nats, Dodgers, Red Sox, Indians, and other successful teams, whose support players are a big factor. Bench depth is crucial to success.
Dude was ridiculous as a brave. He has a pathetic work ethic, and I remember him getting ejected for arguing a pitch right down the middle.
Why would any team make a deal for BJ Upton at this point? They know the Jays have to waive him since he did not make the team. If they wait for him to clear waivers then they can pursue him as a free agent and offer him the league minimum, leaving Toronto on the hook for the rest of his salary.
Upton is done….. he’s not worth it