In a stunning development, the Angels and Tigers have agreed to a deal sending outfielder Justin Upton to Anaheim in exchange for minor league right-hander Grayson Long and a player to be named later or cash, per an announcement from the Tigers. The Angels are reportedly responsible for the four years and $88.5MM on Upton’s contract beyond the current season (if he does not exercise an opt-out clause) as well as most of his remaining 2017 salary. (Detroit is said to be paying less than $1MM of the approximately $3.5MM left of Upton’s $22.125MM annual salary for this season.)
The trade represents a massive boon to an Angels lineup that is firmly in the mix for an American League Wild Card spot. While Upton’s first couple of months as a Tiger made his six-year deal look like a regrettable misstep, he’s been nothing short of one of the best hitters on the planet for the past 14 months. Dating back to July 1 of last year, Upton has raked at a .273/.351/.551 pace with 51 homers in 831 plate appearances. That line includes an even more magnificent .282/.368/.578 slash over the past calendar year. Over his past 631 plate appearances, Upton has clubbed 41 home runs.
Upton has performed so well, in fact, that his contractual opt-out clause following the 2017 season went from looking like like an easy call to remain in Detroit to a distinct possibility of being exercised. Upton has four years and $88.5MM remaining on his contract following the season, but he’d need only to match the money Boston guaranteed to Hanley Ramirez to eclipse that total. One direct comparable, Yoenis Cespedes, received a four-year, $110MM contract last winter in free agency when he was a year older than Upton will be this winter.
MLB.com’s Jon Morosi reports (on Twitter) that Upton had decided that he was likely to opt out of his contract following the season due to the Tigers’ rebuild. When he informed the team of that plan, trade talks quickly picked up. As noted below, the Tigers would’ve stood to lose Upton for nothing (outside of tremendous salary relief, which they’ve achieved anyway), as he cannot receive a second qualifying offer under the new collective bargaining agreement. ESPN’s Buster Olney tweets that Upton gave the Angels no assurances one way or the other about whether he’ll opt out of the contract at season’s end.
Angels left fielders, on the whole, have been among the least productive groups at their position in all of 2017. Anaheim left fielders are batting a woeful .244/.315/.341 thanks to underwhelming contributions from both Cameron Maybin, who has reportedly been traded to the Astros to facilitate the acquisition of Upton, and Ben Revere, who has been hot as of late but has posted generally underwhelming numbers since the onset of the 2016 season with the Nationals.
Long, 23, was the Angels’ third-round pick in 2015 and rates as the No. 9 prospect in Anaheim’s thin farm system, per Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB.com. He spent the beginning of the 2017 season pitching for Class-A Advanced but quickly progressed to Double-A, where he’s pitched quite well in 23 starts. In 133 2/3 innings combined between those two levels, Long has a 2.69 ERA with 8.4 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. He’s more of a fly-ball pitcher, as evidenced by his 33.1 percent grounder rate in Double-A. Callis and Mayo suggest that the 6’5″, 230-pound Long has the ceiling of a “solid” big league starter. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen tweets that Long has exceeded expectations in 2017 and projects as a possible back-of-the-rotation arm.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the two sides were nearing a deal (via Twitter). Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted that the agreement was in place, while ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reported that the agreement was still pending medical review (Twitter link). Crasnick also reported Long’s inclusion in the trade (Twitter link). Sherman tweeted that a PTBNL was also in the deal, while USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweeted the financial details of the swap. Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweeted the Tigers’ salary contribution.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wat
ROSENBOMB
Woah! Literally out of left field
Bad contract
No it’s not
Yes it is, just like his brother’s was. Upton brothers are bad risks and anyone signing them takes it. Notice that once the dotted line is inked production tumbles? it’s all in the family.
J-Up’s been above average to great every year of his career
What numbers exactly would Justin need to throw up for you not to say it’s a bad contract? The numbers I’m seeing are pretty impressive. If anything Detroit got a bargain.
This comment does not reflect baseball, baseball fans or anyone with a brain.
Justin literally having his best season mate..
JUp >>>>> BJ (Melvin)
Justin is and has always been far and away the best of the two
Numbers for this season alone won’t the tale. This guy put up production once he wanted to get traded. Remember: He had a no-trade clause. If he was so adamant about “playing well,” where was this production last year, after the titanic contract he received? $22 MM a year? That’s more than entire teams get paid in Japan or Cuba. All for a .middle-of-the-road player with standard, .246 and .250 BA the last two years. ANYONE could put up those numbers. And, as we’re seeing, Mahtook and Adduci could do just that. And for 1/20 the money.
Not saying he won’t play decent. He just won’t put up $22 MM worth of RBIs, SB, and runs scored. The Angels will be lucky to get a 3.0 WAR each year. And that’ll slowly slump into the 1.0 – 2.0 range by year 3.
Thank god you put (Melvin) in there.
Justin and Melvin are two different people. As soon as you put a blanket over them, you’re exaggerating your own stupidity.
Beyond that, Justin Upton is having arguably his best season. He is literally doing the opposite of the crap you’re trying to spin.
putting up 3 war would be worth more than 22M of value…
With a comment downvoted this much, a week-long ban should go into effect. Please take an internet break and come back again in a few weeks. Thank you, drive thru.
John Silver’s argument against Justin Upton is so off base with reality that I thought he was so obviously trolling…until he revealed that he’s in the same age bracket as my father, who still types with two fingers, so I feel confident in ruling him out as a troll.
The logical next step is to address the assertion that “once the dotted line is inked production tumbles”. This is patently false. Only a few keystrokes (albeit slow keystrokes, as these particular keys are being stroked one finger at a time) and we are reminded that J-Up has signed two major contracts: 2010’s 6 year/$51M contract, and 2016’s 6 year/$133M contract (we all know the option attached to this, so no need to plunge any deeper, whether you use 2, 6 or all 10 phalanges to do your stroking). During the 2010 season, the first season of his first six year contract, in just 133 games he hit 17 HR w/ 70 RBI, was 14th in the NL with an OPS of .800, and had a WAR of 1.6…all at the ripe old age of 22. Pretty good value for $3.75M in 2010. The following year, 2011, he made is 2nd All-Star team (at age 23), won his FIRST (he’d get another one) Silver Slugger award, and was voted 4th in MVP voting (WAR of 6.1!). Dare I say tremendous value for $4.25M. It would appear that we can point to 2012 as a drop off point. While 17 HR and 70 RBI are pretty good value for $6.75M, a WAR of 2.5 is down right nice. Sorry, I forgot…this is his “bad” year, so before we throw the baby out with the bath water and position ourselves to write J-Up off as a lazy bum based on this dip in 2012 production, a mere modicum of effort (even the two finger kind) reveals that he played a significant portion of the first half of 2012 with a mildly severe yet very painful THUMB INJURY, the very same thumb found on his left hand, which happens to be one of the hands that he holds and swings his bat with. Beyond 2012, simply put there is no basis for J-Up being poor value for money, being a poor teammate, being anything less than a top tier outfield talent. Two more All-Star teams. Another Silver Slugger Award. War of 2.9, 3.2, 4.4, 2.0 (due to his sluggish 1st half of 2016 which he clearly made up for) and finally 5.0. You could put him down for 25-30 HR and 85-90 RBI each year. His OPS ranking from 2011-2017 was 5th, 15th (during his DISASTROUS 2012 season), 13th, 7th, 10th, 14th & 3rd amongst Outfielders (a non-weighted mean of 9th in his respective leagues), all of which was achieved during seasons only one of which did he earn over $20M.
Simply put, John Silver has absolutely zero basis for his argument against Justin Upton, just an assumption or projection based on his underachieving brother Mel. Not John’s brother Mel, though I’m sure John has an underachieving brother. Rather, Justin’s brother, Mel Upton, Melvin for short, the player formerly known as BJ. If John Silver is a reasonable man, he’d read what I’ve written, perhaps put both of his fingers to work and do a bit of research so that he can prove to himself that he’d erroneously cast aspersions on the fine career of Justin Upton, even the Justin Upton that wasn’t himself in April and May of 2012 when he had an injured and painful hand thumb.. If John Silver is a reasonable man, he’d say to himself, “Self, you were wrong about Justin Upton. SlapChop, better known for selling Shamwows and punching hookers, has made a cogent argument in defence of Justin Upton, and I should listen to this hooker punching weirdo”. Unfortunately, I think we all know the type of person John Silver is. He’s one of the rare beings that walks amongst us, who stares at eclipses and refuses to admit fault. That’s the John Silver I know. What could have been.
But he makes one hell of a fish sandwich!
Who refers to Batting Average as the sole indicator of talent and/or production anymore?
It’s not great but he has deserved it this year. I think if he opts out, he’ll get right around 88 million again
John Silver doesn’t like ANY players that didn’t come from the 80’s/90’s
That’s comical for posters here that have been here since Tim started this wonderful site and actually read many of my postings.. I’ve been a baseball fan since the early 60’s and really.. There is no favorite time period, only players that hustle on the field and do not sit after signing contracts, which puts out the candy maldonado’s, upton brothers, Jack Clark Sandoval and many other lazy types who think the world revolves around them only.
Some fans think it’s a good thing to grab it all and that it’s how everyone should do it, then those socialist types aren’t able to understand how real life works and probably never will before it’s too late.
Don’t you have a cloud to go yell at?
It is comical thank you made a blanket statement about Justin based on his brother. Just because Justin has a calm demeanor and is not running into walls he is not a bust. For you to have this much hate your life must be in a crappy spot.
You mad old homie
So are you saying that if you are doing what you love, you shouldn’t take the best offer? That you should take a salary more in line with your actual performance as opposed to your projected performance? Granted athletes have the benefit of still being paid to play badly (where as most normal-everyday workers would get demoted or fired for continued poor performance), but are you really saying that people shouldn’t take the best offer available to them if it means doing the thing they love/enjoy?
So what you are saying is senility is setting in for you? Go yell at the kids to stay off your lawn.
Nice
Well there you go though I wonder who theyāre giving up since there isnāt much there. I didnāt realize they had that much room monetarily.
Lots of money coming off the books in Hamilton, Street, Maybin, etc. However they will likely be above the Luxury Tax threshold for 2017 unless the Tigers eat some of the salary. As for prospects being traded, my hope is that it’s not Jahmai Jones…
Isn’t their system on the thin side?
No
Yes it is lol
by angels standards, it’s really good.
I wasn’t talking about astros system but the angels swooped him
Nobody was talking about the Astros system either. The Angels farm is one of the five worst in baseball, hands down.
Woah!
Arte must want to throw some extra money at him.
I’m sure the GM will attempt to get DT to take on some of this contract along with players, picks, etc
Picks?
It’s not the NBA..you can’t trade picks.
You can if it’s a supplemental round pick and the technical “pick” of international pool money.
jeeez
Can he still opt out of his contract after this season?
I imagine they probably have agreed as part of the deal that he won’t opt out. I think they are allowed to do that.
Maybe everyone knows that he is opting out, so the prospect haul will be inconsequential.
Why would Upton do that?
$$$
$$$ would be why he would opt out
yes
Yes
I hope the angels don’t give up too much. It’s a month rental
Not possible, they don’t have much to give up regardless
They don’t have much to give
Well I guess it’s not just Jerry Dipoto to blame for depleting the Angels farm now. But if the Angels can get Upton, why couldn’t the Mariners. We need another bat in the outfield.
They diddnt really give up much at all, so good for the Angels. Now why couldn’t the Mariners have done this?
The problem is Upton could now change his mind about opting out and the Angels are stuck with his contract.
They should go after Stanton.
As an Angels fan I’d actually be happy if Upton didn’t exercise his opt-out. We didn’t give up much to get him and I’d rather have Upton for 4 more years then have to overpay and guarantee 5-6 years to a different outfielder in free agency this off-season
” Iād rather have Upton for 4 more years ”
That hasn’t worked out for anyone else, why would it start working now?
He’s actually been a bargain for Detroit. Too bad the injuries and bad pitching derailed their season.
With what?
Four All-Star teams, Two Silver Sluggers, Avg. 9th best OPS. since 2010, Avg. 28 HR/ 88 RBI per season, never earned over $14M until 2016.
What a bum!!!
He probably would of vetoed a trade to the M’s as he did before. I believe he had a partial no trade clause in his contract.
Hopefully Tigers get a Pitching Prospect out of this! We need Pitching badly!!
If only the Angels had any lol
The only trade for an outfielder the Angels should be thinking about is Stanton.
Justin Upton stinks.
Ummm what? A simple look at baseball reference doesn’t back up that opinion.
lolwut
I guess you haven’t watched baseball since September 2016?
He… what? Umm… I kinda want to hear this guys argument that Upton sucks
Harper after ’18
Bryce Harper is going to sign with the Phillies. It is foolish to think that either he or Machado will be wearing a uniform other than the Phillies in 2019.
The Phillies have $140 million burning a hole in their pocket. That’s $140 million per year, burning a hole in their pocket.
The Yankees have $140 million in their couch cushions.
In your untreated psychotic mind.
The new CBA has created an effective spending cap.
The Phillies are a wealthier team than the Red Sox with no payroll whatsoever.
Everyone needs to process that fact.
Why do you waste your time trolling here? You say the same asanine junk on every post, basically.
Phillies come in 8th in revenue at $325 million per season. The Red Sox 3rd with $434 million. The Yankees are #1 at $526 million. Even if the Phillies had literally a zero payroll, they couldn’t spend what the Yankees are able to spend.
You need to either get back on your anti-psychosis medication or look up what the facts are before you post.
New CBA is a salary cap for 1 team
Your figures are fictitious.
Google: Nielsen 2016-2017 DMA Ranks
Have a nice day!.
youre not factoring in that the Reds have history had better attendance, plus they have a better TV deal, and among other things, a history better team.
Market size isn’t the only thing that produces your payroll size
Your brain is obviously fictitious. Google Forbes Business of Baseball. As for the DMA’s, that is the size of the TV households per market. Philly ranks 4th in TV households and they rank 8th in REVENUE for their MLB team. Neither is close to #1.
Forbes is Fake News.
In fact Forbes is one of the most fictitious news outlets on this planet. Forbes alleged coverage of MLB has no sources and has been proven wrong every time an MLB team is put up for sale.
Don’t you have an eclipse to look at?
I was expecting that Angels would go for Verlander. I expect the package will include either Marsh or Jones–both are high upside young OF’s who have been partly made less essential by the draft of Jo Ardell. this year. Still, there goes the farm, or what has been added last year or two.
One could still hope that it’s the Upton(s) and Verlander in the same package….but the farm may not be deep enough to pull that off.
PS. If it happens, Angels ship either Jones or Marsh plus a pitching prospect to Tigers–with Upton rescinding his opt-out. IF it’s Upton(s) and Verlander, the entire farm would have to go, or whatever is in it. I’m kinda hoping that it’d be the later.
Wowzers.
What could the Tigers possibly want from the Angels’ farm system? It’ll be interesting to see what influence his potential opt out will have on this trade. But Trout finally gets protection.
I love the Upton haters. do you guys watch baseball? He’s a great player by any measure.
Based on the 1:24PM update, does that mean he is going to opt-out?
Upton is very good. But Im sorry, this article makes it seem like the Angels are getting a second Mike Trout. ‘One of the best hitters on the planet’ ‘magnificent’ ‘huge boon’. Funny
Upton’s 148 wRC+ is tied with Jose Altuve and Paul Goldschmidt for seventh in all of baseball over the past calendar year.
He has, in every sense of the phrase, been one of the best hitters on the planet for the better part of a year.
Has Justin Upton become one of the most underrated players in baseball????
Yup! Baseball fan minds are a motha! Because Upton started slowly after signing a pretty big (fair) deal, a lot of fans labeled him a bust. When In actuality he has been one of the best hitters in the game over the past year.
Very interesting deal. I wonder if the Angels received any guarantee that Upton would or would not opt-out. It seems like it’d be difficult for both teams to determine Upton’s value when they don’t know whether it’s one month of Upton or four years of Upton they’re trading/receiving.
Now does Upton change his mind about opting out? The Angels are not going to be rebuilding so he does not have that to worry about.
I don’t know. That sounded more like a good excuse to opting out than saying “I want to try to secure more guaranteed money.”
The Angels could work out an extension to try to keep him. Rather than try to resign him if he opts out. Give a two year extension for around 30 million, would put him around where he wants to be.
Why would he opt out of $22m/yr for four more years to take $15m/yr for two years?
He had to mean $30m/yr for two years
Which is still less than is on his contract, and defeats the purpose of an opt out, anyway. He’s been playing at an undeniably elite level and he’s 30, he’s never going to command more money on the market than he will this winter.
“Fire Avila because he didn’t get Trout”…
-Irrational fans
This is a very good deal for the Angels if Long is all that they are shipping (that is, if the PTBN is no one important). Long is an OK, but not world beating prospect. I do suspect if PTBN is tied to whether Upton exercises his opt out or not–they probably have a player (or a list of possible players) figured out depending on the contingencies.
If Upton was going to opt out, then this is a great deal for the Tigers. A prospect plus cash or a PTBNL beats the nothing they would have got had they kept him. From the Angles standpoint , not sure this makes sense, but Angels fans can debate that.
Exactly two prospects for a guy who was opting out. Great deal.
@Tigerdoc616 From the Angel fan perspective this is a good deal based on giving up Long who profiles as a back -end guy arriving 2019. The Angels have 3 starters in the pipeline : Barria, Rodriguez and Canning who they like more plus a handful of young controlled arms (although some with injury concerns)) already in the bigs.
If Upton walks that money is then spent to address other needs + the Hamilton $$ is off this winter. If he stays you have LF solved through the life of the current Trout contract for a good player at a reasonable dollar amount. Solid deal all around.
So, basically a three way deal, then….Angels deal Maybin and an OK but not great prospect (Long) for Upton, and I imagine Astros supply PTBN? For the Angels, Maybin is a FA, so no long term value and Long, by himself, looks to be an OK price for Upton if he opts out and potentially a bargain if Upton stays put (and does not crash and burn).
Nice pick up.
Yankees sit in silence as their season slips away from them
Lol wtf. They had the busiest July deadline out of any team
This guy is stuck in 2016.
What time is today’s deadline?
This dude is a monad. Traveling from team to team. Winning nothing.
Won more than you. Thats a fact
What’s a monad?
Ask Rajah Davis, he could possibly tell you what a monad is.
Street for my pops
Great start of the rebuild, getting nothing for one of your most marketable players. Yes, I know there is an uncertainty about an opt out. Avila is doing a terrible job so far.
On the other hand, I am surprised that the Angels are taking on more money (if he doesn’t opt out). Good job by their management to give it a shot while they can. However, this gets them in an even worse situation payroll-wise if Upton stays.
Upton told Detroit he was opting out. What would you suggest Avila do? Nothing?
At this time, probably nothing. The fact that Upton can’t get another QO (which I just thought of) really hurts. But I think they could have gotten way more for him in the past offseason.
There was a massive logjam of corner bats available last winter. The Mets couldn’t give Jay Bruce away at one year and $13MM.
No one was trading prospects for Upton AND taking his contract. That he was set on opting out handcuffed the Tigers to a large extent.
Long and a PTBNL isn’t a much, but getting a reasonably advanced Double-A arm that has legitimate MLB rotation upside in this spot is a fine outcome for the Tigers. It’s honestly more than I’d have guessed they’d get even this morning if you’d told me they were going to move Upton.
They couldn’t have given him a QO anyway, he was opting out not becoming a FA.
If the market was so strong last winter why wasn’t JD traded? His numbers were strong over multiple years, unlike Upton’s 2 months, and the commitment was only for 1 yr. As Steve Adams states, the market was overcrowded last winter. No opportunity to trade Upton after the way he started 2016.
You can give a QO to someone who opts out of their contract. Opting out makes you a free agent.
The reason he can’t get one is because he’s already received an offer before and you can only receive one QO in your career. But it has nothing to do with his opting out.
It was not strong, it was long jammed. Complete opposites. It means lots of OFs and not much demand.
I wish the Tigers would trade everyone for cash and 18 year old scrappy middle infielders. Go Tigers!
What a great deal for the Angels. Regardless of whether Upton opts out of his contract at the end of the year, they are just a game out of the WC right now. Finally, Trout gets a true big bat to help him. They will have Upton, Trout, and Calhoun in that OF. If Upton chooses to stay, that is a formidable team next season with all those pitchers coming back from injuries. A few tweaks in the FA market and they have a real shot at winning the AL West next year.
Anyone want to play in the bigs? The Tigers need a few live human beings to play outfield. Show up at Comerica Park Monday and try out. And, bring your own mitt.
Nah I’ll be busy trying out for the white sox. Think I have a pretty good shot of making the team lol
Didn’t expect that.
Upton wasn’t going to reup here at least he let tiger front office know….getting Long is about right for a one month rental…at least the Tigers don’t have to worry about 88 million anymore…long can pitch he will probably be in rotation sometime next year….good luck J Up….castellanos to left field canyman to third…. Life’s not good if your a tiger fan…now can we Get a new gm this offseason..
Agreed but Nick is going to right field. Too much real estate in left at Comerica for Nick.
Vernon Wells 2.0? Not a knock on JUp, just seems like a similar situation for LAA.
Ouch – I guess the worst case for Upton is similar, though at least there’s no one like Napoli to come back and crush the Angels every month.
Why is that, because he’s an outfielder?
Upton is a couple of years younger and is having an exceptional year. This really isn’t about the long term for the Angels. Upton is still very likely to opt out after the season. This just gives the Angels another great bat in the middle of that lineup. Simmons, Trout, Upton, Pujols.
Tigers are going to suck until at least 2022. They are going to have to go through a painful and full scale rebuild. The main problem I see is lack of controllable assets like the White Sox had, which is why I see them having to endure some painful years.
More like the tigers controllable assets are aging, oft-injured and overpaid players unlike the sox who were in the exact opposite situation
When you have what the White Sox had, and choose to trade it instead of build around it, that’s when you know the front office doesn’t have a clue. It’s a long shot that any of the acquired players will become as good as Sale, or Quintana, or Eaton.
Bruh…. White Sox are pretty much set even if half of their prospects end up reaching their potential. You are clearly delusional or a homer.
Let me know when it actually happens. I just happen to think very highly of the players they gave up. Not only were those 3 good, they signed long term for cheap. That’s hard to get in today’s market. There is no guarantee that any prospect will become a perennial all star.
I hope the Tigers don’t suck as bad as the white sox. Detroit doesn’t deserve that!
Well, maybe they want a better draft pick.
Give the White Sox 2 years and “sucking” will not be synonymous with their name.
The White Sox are going to be competing for AL Central titles shortly.
Brace yourselves Tigers fans, the next decade is gonna suck.
Wow
Billy Epp is a Cashman disciple he is doing a good job upgrading the Angels. They are giving it a shot. In the end it comes down to the play of the players on the field.
Love that the Angels are trying to take advantage of this widow they have by taking on the salary. This season is likely their best chance while they still have Trout.
And I think Avila deserves a lot of credit for this too, despite some complaints above. There are a lot of massive free-agent commitments that flop, but this was a great one IMO (sorry johnsilver, disagree there). In totality, the Tigers got much more than they paid for from Upton, and that’s a rarity in free agency
Where are all these fools who were telling me at the deadline on here that the Tigers won’t rebuild they’ll just sign more guys as free agents in the offseason. I love the idea of a rebuild as a fan ever since they got swept in 2014 ALDS. But I cringe at the fact Al Avila is callin the shots š
Ausmus and Al Avila must go!
There is little reason to watch the Tigers now. JV just became more willing to waive his no trade clause, I bet.
Michigan summers are terrific. Boating, championship golf, casinos, concerts, racing and great restaurants.
After enduring 1988 to 2006 I can’t bear to watch any more awful baseball.
Everyone screaming for a total rebuild must be under age 40.
looks like Detroit lost Kate upton and Justin Upton now! lol