Melvin Upton Jr. is switching teams once again, as he heads to Canada.
The Toronto Blue Jays have reached a deal with the San Diego Padres to acquire outfielder Melvin Upton Jr., according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of FOXSports.com. Rosenthal adds that the Padres will receive an unknown Class-A prospect in return for Upton Jr., but financial terms of the trade are not yet known.
The 31-year-old Virginia native is due $15.45 million this year and $16.45 million next year, so it is assumed that the Padres will have to take on a good amount of that contract. Yesterday, Rosenthal had reported that the Blue Jays were the "front-runners" to land his services and the Cleveland Indians and the Baltimore Orioles were also interested, as Tyler Jennings of Scout.com wrote yesterday.
Upton Jr. has enjoyed a breakout 2016 campaign with San Diego, slashing .256/.304/.439 over 374 plate appearances, along with 16 home runs, 11 doubles, two triples and 45 runs batted in, in 92 games played. This season, Upton Jr. has also had a way for the theatrics, contributing three walk-off home runs this year alone, as all of them occurred in the first half of the season.
During the previous three seasons with the Atlanta Braves and the Padres, he appeared in 354 games, hitting just .209/.287/.335 over 1256 plate appearances, along with 26 home runs, 45 doubles, nine triples and 78 runs batted in, in 354 games played. Over his 12-year-career that started out with the Tampa Bay Rays, followed by the Braves and Padres, he owns a disheartening .245/.323/.404 slash line over 5693 plate appearances, along with 160 home runs, 258 doubles, 31 triples and 570 runs batted in, in 1412 games played.