The Mariners have recalled Justin Upton before tonight’s game against the Angels. Utilityman Sam Haggerty has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma in a corresponding move. Upton, who signed a one-year deal with Seattle last month, is in position to make his M’s debut tonight against his former team.
Upton will step right in against his former club. The Angels made the somewhat surprising decision to release the four-time All-Star coming out Spring Training, electing to turn the corner outfield over to Brandon Marsh and Taylor Ward. The decision has panned out, as Ward has been one of the sport’s top breakout performers. Marsh has cooled after a hot start but is one of the sport’s better defenders in left field.
After being cut loose, Upton lingered on the open market for a while. He eventually signed a big league deal with a Seattle club that lost Mitch Haniger to injury and seen Jarred Kelenic perform poorly enough to be optioned back to Triple-A Tacoma. He took some time at the team’s Arizona complex and with the Rainiers to get into game shape, but he’s now apparently ready for his first MLB action of the 2022 season. He’ll pair with the lefty-hitting Taylor Trammell and Jesse Winker in the corner outfield mix.
Good luck!
Curious, whatever happened to his brother, B.J. (Melvin.)
quietly retired
If he stays healthy, does he have any left in the tank?
I’d guess not. Maybe hitting bad lefty starters like Martin Perez etc at most. The M’s offense is bad enough that will probably help though
He’s always been a streaky hitter. The hot streaks are getting fewer and further between, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he had a good couple weeks at some point this year.
Knowing the Angels luck, that’ll start tonight.
Even some modest production from JU will be good.
Winker has been a stinker
Frazier has been frosty
$28.5M call up. Seriously though, I am rooting for Justin Upton to bounce back just enough to end his career on a happy note.
Angels are paying that lol
I’d rather the Angels pay him to play for Seattle than for us.
He’s a streaky guy. He was on a hot streak when he was let go. It was bound to end sooner or later, but Minasian cutting him in Tempe meant we had Jose Rojas on the grass opening week.
I wish we’d have cut Upton after Marsh came back from injury.
Only about a $500k call up for the Mariners if they kept him all year
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
#MarinersBaseball
Oh boy. My prediction: 1st at bat – strike out, 2nd at bat – HIDP, prior to 3rd at bat leaves game on the IL because his feelings hurt.
And knowing the Angels he probably goes 3-3 with at least a home run.
Of course that is the other option cuz it’s the Angels.
Heh, neither of us checked the starting lineups before posting. He’s not getting 3 ABs this game as he’s not listed. Maybe he’ll replace Winkler and get a pitch AB at some point.
Ha. Seattle understands.
Well, you were basically right.
I guess so minus the specific details.
Justin Upton just up. Makes for an interesting game, if nothing else. Good luck to him.
His PCL numbers…he’s toast.
He still has a chance to be effective once in a while. But yipes, 45 ABs and 18 SO doesn’t look good.
Look at the bright side. 60% of the time he didn’t strike out.
Pretty much ALL players have the ability to be effective once in a while.
In today’s game they don’t care how much you strike out, along as you produce HR’s and rbi’s.
I really don’t understand why we don’t just let Kelenic figure it out at the MLB level. Yeah, he struggled, but we replaced him with Haggerty, Moore, Frazier, Trammell, and now Upton. They should have let him try to figure it out at the MLB level and sent him down once he could be replaced by either Lewis or Haniger… whoever came back first. Kelenic is still better than those other options, and has a higher ceiling as well.
Trammell has done alright, and perhaps Upton if he was raking at AAA since he has the history. But Upton has been terrible at AAA too.
Did you not watch a single at bat from Kelenic this year? He was completely lost and lost all his confidence at the plate. At that point you don’t continue to throw them out there so they can continue to fail. You send them down. Keeping him up would’ve been the dumbest move. When you’re that lost, you’re not figuring anything out up here at the Major League level. He was at the point where he wasn’t even swinging anymore. It was clearly time he needed to go back down to collect his head and get some confidence while working on some things
The timing on this is curious especially with Seattle’s management fully aware Amber Heard’s interview airs in prime time tonight
Just in (no pun intended) time to have a big game against the Angels!
Angels history of facing former players is not good. See the latest damage done by Kole Calhoun last month. You’d think they would know their former players? No, not the Angels. Also, several players have had success prior to joining the Angels and after the Angels, but not while playing for them. Says something about the organization. Is it too laid back or is it too stressful? Or is it that the Angels don’t have the right front office, trainers, coaches, scouts, etc? I guess we don’t fully know the answer, but something has been wrong there for 10 years or so.
This falls under the category of “sure, why not”. Because while Upton hasn’t been hitting much, neither have too many other Mariners.
Looking at his numbers with AAA Tacoma, it does not appear Upton has found his stroke yet.
JUSTIN TIME !!
The best thing about Upton is he’s not Robinson Cano, so there’s that.
Mariners: recall Justin Upton?
Angels: No, never heard of him.
I think they’re only going to give him a few weeks. Someone out of Kelenic Haniger or Lewis has to be a better option by then. Hopefully all of them are around post All Star break