Jays shopping Melvin Upton Jr

[Axeman33]

And rumour has it, he won't be joining the team once the regular season starts. I wonder what happened, other than him sucking.

https://www.fanragsports.com/news/he...lvin-upton-jr/

The Toronto Blue Jays are listening to offers on outfielder Melvin Upton Jr., sources tell FanRag Sports. The Blue Jays acquired Upton Jr. from the San Diego Padres just prior to the trade deadline last season.

The Tampa Bay Rays and San Francisco Giants could be potential fits for the outfielder, as they seem to make sense for a right-handed outfielder. The Baltimore Orioles would seem to make sense, but are ?not a fit,? a source said. The Detroit Tigers are said to be set in the outfield, too.

Upton Jr. appeared in 57 games with the Blue Jays last season, batting .196/.261/.318 in 165 plate appearances. He spent the majority of his time with the team in left field, also appearing in center down the stretch for Toronto, which was eliminated in the ALCS by the Cleveland Indians.

Coming into the season, Upton Jr. is owed $16.45 million, $11.45 million of which will be paid by the Padres. He will become a free agent at season?s end for the first time since 2013, when he signed a five-year, $75.25 million deal with the Atlanta Braves.

Upton Jr. was the second overall pick in the 2002 MLB Amateur Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays, who fast-tracked him to the major leagues as a 19-year-old in 2004. Drafted as a shortstop, he was shifted to center field by the time he took over a full-time role for the Rays in 2007.

He played the first eight seasons of his 12-year career as a member of the Rays. After just two seasons with Atlanta after he signed, he was jettisoned to San Diego, where he played a combined 179 games over two years.

If Upton Jr. is not a member of the roster, the Blue Jays currently have Dalton Pompey and Ezequiel Carrera to fill the left field position.

[hockeyrobot]

The Jays arguably have the worst hitting outfield in the league....regardless of how bad he was, Im not sure this is a smart move.

[StuntMan12]

Blue Jays release Melvin Upton Jr

http://www.tsn.ca/blue-jays-release-...on-jr-1.712899


am so use to calling him BJ

[Axeman33]

I guess no trades were coming down the pipe.

[gooding74]

Yikes. And I just spent auction money on him in an AL-only league. I didn't realize his situation was that dire as far as him making the team. Hopefully he resurfaces somewhere in the AL, otherwise that's wasted money. LOL

[hockeyrobot]

Not sure why they wouldn't address their OF in the offseason. Once Jose gets hurts (he will at some point) it's going to go from bad to worse.

[2014olympicgold]

Pearce, Carrera, Pillar, Jose, Pompey, they can still sign Pagan, Goins has played OF and pretty well. They picked up Coghlan who plays LF and a util role to a AAA contract who hit a career 0.268 vs lefties (Carrera hits righties better, platoon).

Melvin's biggest positive to him was SB, and he didn't do that enough to warrant keeping him over Goins. Goins was out of options, and likely would have been picked up by someone. Goins has the ability to play everywhere it seems, even pitcher until he throws his arm out warming up....

I rather Goins than Upton, and it's releasing someone who the Jays only owed 1mill too, the other 15+ was owed by SDP

[Axeman33]

Pearce, Carrera, Pillar, Jose, Pompey, they can still sign Pagan, Goins has played OF and pretty well. They picked up Coghlan who plays LF and a util role to a AAA contract who hit a career 0.268 vs lefties (Carrera hits righties better, platoon).

Melvin's biggest positive to him was SB, and he didn't do that enough to warrant keeping him over Goins. Goins was out of options, and likely would have been picked up by someone. Goins has the ability to play everywhere it seems, even pitcher until he throws his arm out warming up....

I rather Goins than Upton, and it's releasing someone who the Jays only owed 1mill too, the other 15+ was owed by SDP

Dont get me wrong, I think Upton was overpaid, but are you seriously going to tell me you'd rather see Goins in the OF, and at the plate, over Upton? Goins is crap at the plate. Pompey has yet to prove himself. If Coghlan was worth mentioning, he wouldn't be in the minors. The only guy you mentioned in your post other than Jose who I have hopes for offensively is Pearce and even he's a bit of a question mark for me. That outfield, offensively, is just yuck. Tons of speed and D, but little hope for offense.

[2014olympicgold]

Dont get me wrong, I think Upton was overpaid, but are you seriously going to tell me you'd rather see Goins in the OF, and at the plate, over Upton? Goins is crap at the plate. Pompey has yet to prove himself. If Coghlan was worth mentioning, he wouldn't be in the minors. The only guy you mentioned in your post other than Jose who I have hopes for offensively is Pearce and even he's a bit of a question mark for me. That outfield, offensively, is just yuck. Tons of speed and D, but little hope for offense.

I rather have Goins than Upton because who can play SS, 2B, 3B, 1B, LF, RF and be a bench player for the Jays? Barney can be the IF. But if Tulo and Travis go down, Toronto is bringing up a kid from AAA to play one of those two VERY important positions for the Jays, who’s pitchers put it on the ground OFTEN. If you saw Spring Training, you’d know how crappy the Jays 2B/SS are in the minors (not talking down, just saying if you watched how many bad throws they did it was insane how crap toronto’s minor MI are).

It came down to wear the Jays front office had more confidence in health. OF or IF. Clearly they think they have enough pieces in the OF and are thin in the IF. I still think there’s room to grow for Goins with some regular ABs too, and Upton hit 0.196 as a Jay last yr, nothing he did as a Jay really showed he was worth a spot to me. And for what it’s worth, Goins looked pretty good last yr for the Jays as an OF for his 2^nd taste of it (did it in 2015). Defensively in the OF, Goins is pretty freaking close to Upton, and I think Melvin had checked out of doing the “all out play” when I saw him bail out of catching a ball off the wall.

Again, it came down to where the Jays felt needed more insurance based on injury, and Goins playing every position but catcher and CF last yr prolly did it.

Upton (to the Jays) wasn’t overpaid, he made $1mill.

[Axeman33]

As a Jays fan, I hope you are right but I am not expecting much of anything for offense from the OF, which doesn't bode well. It's hard to even know what to expect from Jose Bautista and he's the best they have. Hopefully he comes out pissed off about no one else wanting to pay him and rips the cover off the ball.

[2014olympicgold]

As a Jays fan, I hope you are right but I am not expecting much of anything for offense from the OF, which doesn't bode well. It's hard to even know what to expect from Jose Bautista and he's the best they have. Hopefully he comes out pissed off about no one else wanting to pay him and rips the cover off the ball.

I’m not saying Goins is going to be amazing, I’m just saying Upton wasn’t good.

And either way, if it’s Goins, Upton, or Zeke playing (if Upton made the team he’s platooning with Zeke), they’d all be back batting order guys. And Carrera’s contact and speed made me like him as a lead off when Devon was down last yr. You have him 9, Devon 1^st, you practically have 2 lead offs.

Honestly it was the signing of Smoak that did this all in. I rather Upton than Smoak, because you could have Pearce, Goins, Bautista, and (VERY rarely) Morales play 1^st. But I understand why they signed Smoak last yr, it was a security blanket signing for EE.

[Axeman33]

If Smoak could hit a breaking ball, he'd be a bargain. His D is well above average but you can't trust his bat.

And yes, I agree that Upton wasn't good during his time in TO, but I did trust him to bounce back more than I trust Goins doing much of anything. Goins is solid defensively in the infield but his bat is so lackluster it's not even funny. He's just blah at the plate.

Either way, it is what it is now. Fingers crossed.

[blayze]

I don't know about you guys, but I have very tempered expectations about the team this season...

[GSD]

As a Jays fan, I hope you are right but I am not expecting much of anything for offense from the OF, which doesn't bode well. It's hard to even know what to expect from Jose Bautista and he's the best they have. Hopefully he comes out pissed off about no one else wanting to pay him and rips the cover off the ball.

First of all I would trade the Tigers sorry outfield for yours. Looks like Upton may be joining his bro in Detroit

[2014olympicgold]

I don't know about you guys, but I have very tempered expectations about the team this season...

It's so sad but if 1 starter goes down with an injury, or Donaldson, bye bye season. They are so fickle and lack of overall hitting it's scary bad. Even this Osuna injury could be the death to them just over a 10 day absent.