The Orioles have spoken with the Padres about outfielder Melvin Upton, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). The deal under discussion would send righty Ubaldo Jimenez to San Diego, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (Twitter links).
An agreement isn’t close at present, per Rosenthal, who says that the Friars are also seeking a prospect to make something happen. Presumably, the struggling Jimenez would help offset Upton’s salary, perhaps paving the way to the acquisition of a useful minor league asset. Baltimore owes Jimenez $13MM this year and $13.5MM for 2017, while Upton is on the books for $15.45MM currently and $16.45MM next season.
While Upton has turned around his career over the last two years with San Diego, his big salary obviously serves to weigh down his trade value. Even if he’s been worth nearly what he’s owed of late, it’s a large chunk of change for any team to take on. Jimenez, meanwhile, has followed up on a useful 2015 with a dreadful start to his 2016 season. He owns a 7.38 ERA over 81 2/3 innings, with 111 hits and 50 walks leaving him with a 1.971 WHIP.
We’ve covered several stories tonight that seem to be merging with these reports. The O’s just lost Joey Rickard to the DL, where he joins Hyun Soo Kim. And the Padres were said to be advising rival organizations that a deal involving Upton was nearing completion.
Baltimore has made clear that starting pitching is its priority, but the recent injuries seem to have opened another need. It is worth mentioning that the Pads could help in the pitching department, too, as the sides are said to have discussed righty Andrew Cashner.
Should a trade come to pass between the clubs, Upton could take the lion’s share of the time in left until Kim returns, at which point they’d likely split the action. Upton could also potentially spell Adam Jones in center and deepen the team’s late-inning defensive options with the lumbering Mark Trumbo currently manning right.
[Related: Orioles and Padres Depth Charts]
For San Diego, moving Upton represents more than just a chance to acquire yet more young assets. The team is also in need of carving out some MLB time for a pair of prospects — Hunter Renfroe and Manuel Margot — who are pushing for an opportunity. (Jason Martinez of MLBTR and Roster Resource recently broke down the case for Renfroe.)
This trade deadline is going to be amazing.
With Melvin Upton Jr. As a reason?
You must be joking
Why not, this trade is hilarious.
why would Padres do this deal
I assume Jimenez would only come back so the Orioles don’t have to take on more salary. There’d have to be prospects going to the Padres.
because Preller is not smart.
The Padres have a capable CF in Travis Jankowski and another in Jon Jay (unless he’s traded). Alex Dickerson has done well in LF, and Hunter Renfroe has nothing left to prove in AAA. Jimenez would slot into a weak rotation. The salaries line up reasonably well, but the Orioles are in a position of need, so Preller has leverage to ask for more. This deal makes a lot of sense for the Padres I’m sorry your blind Preller hated doesn’t let you see that.
Melvin Upton will actually help the team he is playing for win games while Ubaldo Jimenez will not. The Orioles should have to include some legit prospects or cash for this trade to work.
P.S. Jon Jay is a free agent at the end of the year so the Padres have no use for him.
San Diego is the biggest pitcher’s park in the league. The thinking would be unload Upton to allow younger, cheaper prospects who are ready to move into the outfield, for, not only Jimenez, but presumably a prospect too. Jimenez would benefit from a change of scenery but also especially playing in that massive park and playing for a team that is not under pressure to win. Acquiring Jimenez also allows San Diego to to deal one of their starters who has value. I like the trade for the Orioles unless the Orioles give someone up one of their better prospects in addition to Jimenez.
I think he’s one of the worst GMs in the game. His performance at the deadline last year was especially disappointing for players who had one season remaining on their contracts. Yes, he made out like a bandit in the Kimbrel trade, but I think that was more Dombrowski willing to pay a steep price as he always does (Miggy trade, Price signing, etc.) He’s really made irresponsible, short term decisions his calling card throughout his tenure.
Uh, you do realize preller kept kenned and upton, netted two compensatory draft picks which increased their pool money, drafted and signed lawson and thompson who were highly rated prospects with the extra money, and still has 1+ more year to deal ross, norris, and has gotten more out of wil myers than the nationals have out of turner and ross so far.
But yeah, one worst gm in baseball LOL.
agreed pacific shark. great points
Preller isn’t that bad. He tried something new, realized that it didn’t work, made some moves in the offseason to try to begin to rebuild the system, had a great draft and did a solid job on the international market. He got more than he paid for on Kimbrel, got something out of Benoit, picked up Luis Perdomo in the Rule V, as he is beginning to find his footing in the majors and could be a great starter down the line.
I give the kid a lot of credit. He could have done what the White Sox did or what the Phillies were doing from 2012-2014 and denied the fact that he messed up and continued to add more major leaguers digging a deeper hole. He still has Ross, Solarte, Villanueva, Cashner, Norris and others who he can get some value out of.
I also loved the Rodney trade– Paddack is a fantastic prospect who I believe will be top-100 within the next year or so.
Agree re Preller.
Padres fans are waaay to critical of his moves. He has cashed in nicely with kimbrel, pomerantz, shields, Rodney … Had a great draft… Gobbling up talent in the international market… More moves to go with Norris, Ross and probably cashner…
Not at all. First, he acquired all that talent when he arrived because the team was completely devoid of MLB-caliber position players. Go look at the 2014 padres, see what some of those guys are up to these days, i’ll wait.
Yea, that bad. That 2014 OF combined to hit worse than Kemp’s 23 HR/100RBI output in 2015. 3 outfields couldn’t muster 23 HR, in like 1000ABs. Can’t build a pot without some clay, so he went out and got some clay in the form of distressed or overpaid assets. And while the team as a whole struggled last year, it was a ‘total is less than the sum of the parts’ situation, and he was able to extract a king’s ransom for those parts: Farm system ranking jumped from the high 20s on opening day 2015, to #2 1.5 seasons later.
How do you extract so much value? By refusing to sell unless you either can get peak value, or you have extreme extenuating circumstances (the Shields situation). So he didn’t deal at the deadline last year, because the QO for Kennedy was more valuable than what anyone offered. He obviously maximized the return on Kennedy. Maybe he could’ve done better than a QO for Upton, but the book is sort of out on him – he’s a streaky good-not-great player; more succinctly, he’s overrated.
For a GM that ‘only thinks short term’, he’s figured out long term answers at 1B, 3B, C, CF, LF, RF and 2B in 1.5 years. The pitching is a bit of a mess due to injuries and regression, but there are plenty of very high upside arms throughout the system, and there are a lot of suitors for that SS position. He’s manage to hit big on reviving Upton’s career, acquiring Pomeranz for pennies, pulling Buchter from the complete ether, winning big on Fernando Rodney (go gawk at Chris Paddack’s numbers real quick: 0.85 ERA, 15.1 k/9, 1.1 bb/9 in 42.1 IP as a starter in A ball), and drafted ground ball machine Luis Perdomo in the Rule 5 Draft.
But he hasn’t managed to take a terrible team that he inherited and turn it into a WS champ, so he’s a terrible GM /s
Don’t forget about how Preller turned Yonder Alonso and Marc Scrabble into a top 20 prospect via the Pomeranz trade.
Bad call! He isnt a vanilla GM for sure, but he cannot be judged on the outcome of all of this yet. He had a great opportunity last year with big budget and an ok to go after the ring from owners…made some decent moves but I blame Bud Black for a lot of how the team didnt do what they should have last year. That much talent should have had a better record. Even pitching wasnt effective and he is a “pitching” manager. The trades are still not showing any signs of biting him in the ass yet…and besides, do you think ANY of the kids are going to be HOFamers? Seriously? The trade that I heard the MOST bitching about (Upton Jr), people are NOW bitching about him going somewhere…the basic facts are this…a last place or second to last place team in rebuild mode has ZERO reason to have a $20, $15, or even more than one $10 million players when they can parlay those into the future. Anybody that thinks we should put a $200 million dollar team on the field while doing the rebuild should go north to LA to experience those kind of seasons…oh and let me know how that philosophy is working out for them lately.
wow..I see that you don’t know what your talking about son…sorry but true …preller is now doing what he knows best and it starts with a solid foundation. …he is doing something that no padre GM has never done and took a big risk last year. ..but now looking like our minor league is top 2 in the majors…soon to be one of the top teams in baseball like Kansas City and Houston came to be with prospects. …
Although, I do agree with you that Prellar is not a bad GM, you are giving him way more credit than he deserves.
First, yes the farm system was ranked in the high 20’s at the begining of 2015 because Prellar traded away most of the highest rated prospects. The farm was ranked anywhere from 3rd (baseball America) to 9th (Keith Law) in 2014. So, giving him credit for turning a bad farm into a good farm is not warranted unless you also give him the blame for making it a bad farm to begin with.
Second, I will agree that holding onto Kennedy last year was the best move. I doubt he could have done better than the comp pick from the QO, with him. That said, holding onto Upton was a huge mistake. You can rationalize it, all you want, but it has come out that the Mets offered Fulmer for him, before they made the Cespedes deal. There was no way he could have expected to best Fulmer with a lotto ticket.
Third. The Shield’s situation was only extenuating because Prellar signed him to a back loaded deal. Had he front loaded it, like he should have, with a pitcher of that age, he would have had an easier time trading him.
Fourth. Any GM that spends around $90m on international free agents is going to stock their farm. If you throw darts at a dartboard, the more you throw the greater your chances are at hitting a bullseye. Although, when Prellar was hired his main selling point was his knack for scouting. You would only have to look at the Rangers farm to know that was true.
The final thing I take issue with in your post, is how you give Prellar credit for shoring up so many positions. I will give you 1st (maybe, will have to check after Bauers develops another year), if you mean Myers, 3rd and wherever in the OF Margot plays (assuming CF). But, if Prellar had not made a single move since being hired (excluding the Headley swap he was going anyway) C (Grandal/Hedges), 1st (Jake Bauers 134 wRC+ in AA for Tampa) 2nd (Spangenberg/Gyorko), SS (Turner), and Renfroe/Smith/Maybin in the OF would be positions already taken care of. Plus a rotation of Ross, Ross, Wisler, Fried (looking decent this year K+ per inning, whip is still a bit high), Eflin/Hahn looks like a solid rotation. Albeit not a spectacular one. It might have taken another year or two but the Padres would probably be in contention with the team Byrnes put together.
It’s hard to say whether Prellar has been good for the Padres or bad. I will say that before he came aboard the Padres might as well have been a AAAA team. Even in their winning seasons the past 20 years most fans of the game didn’t give much thought to them, other than to see what good players they might have available at the deadline. He has definitely made them relevant again.
Agree Preller is doing a great job.There is a reason why they have the 2nd best minor league system in the game.Too go from one of the worst minor league systems to one of the best in 1 year is simple amazing.
Jimenez has an expensive contract as well. So taking on Jimenez’s contract is the only way for San Diego to get rid of all of Melvin’s contract
I am with you on this one. Salary savings maybe $3 – 4 million, but at least Upton throwing some decent numbers.
Couple reasons. Upton regained value
They can clear his salary commitments completely its a win for the padres.
They could send them ubaldo and money to cover his majority of his salary next year making cap room of roughly 10 or more million.
They could get prospects back and be swapping salaries.
the problem is that the O’s have shit for prospect. Top prospect, Hunter Harvey, is going under the knife for like a 3rd time already, and he’s literally their only Top 100 prospect. #2, Jomar Reyes, isn’t playing that well, and is only rated at 50 overall anyways. #3 is Chance Sisco, but the Padres have no need for an almost MLB ready catcher, with Norris, Hedges, Bethancourt and Austin Allen all under team control for the foreseeable future. #4 Trey Mancini looks nice, but he’s limited to 1B, not much help to the Padres. Chris Lee at #7 is probably the first interesting prospect.
It just really doesn’t look like the O’s have anything of value to make the deal happen
Its also much easier to right a pitcher that is not doing very well and turn him into a tradeable asset (Pomeranz anybody?) next year than get a MLB OF or somebody else to block the kids coming up….we have one of if not the best overall pitching coaching staffs/trainers/systems in the MLB. Tons of people wrote off Kennedy before we got him…Nobody wanted Rodney after last year…etc.
Two words: Hunter Freakin Renfroe
Read the post! To get PT for Renfroe and acquire a prospect. subalpine is collateral damage
That was supposed to say Ubaldo!!!!
Scrub for scrub
So what orioles take upton and his salary and send us ubaldo and cash to cover half or more of his contract next year?
Cashier also in it.
cashier? wtf? or did u mean cashner? lmao
And people thought I was an idiot for suggesting this earlier. Still a long shot
Good call!
In fairness, I would think Preller would be an idiot to take the trade framework you laid out. The O’s farm system is as about as bare as it comes, and the few assets that have that have some value play either 1B or C. I think there are just too many suitors on the market for Preller to shrug his shoulders and accept Walker as ‘Good Enough’. Flipping through their prospects, almost all of them are having bad seasons, and most are far, far away – struggling as a 21 year old in A ball is not a positive sign.
I think Preller can and will do better, even if he has to wait until the Winter Meetings to get it done. Upton’s value is only going to go up the less remaining money on that contract there is.
Melvin’s value will only go up? You must be joking. The Pads save a little money with the swap and can grab a 2nd or 3rd tier prospect. I hope it’s Bridwell.
A Lumbering Mark Trumbo, LOL
He isn’t that bad, quite frankly he has held his own in the outfield.
You know the thing is if Trumbo is forced to DH, where is Pedro Alvarez going?
Well, they can worry about that after Kim or Rickard come back and use Melvin in LF in the meantime. Or maybe Pedro gets dealt for cash?
Will probably DH against really good righties(ie scherzer arrieta and such)
Not to be a homer, but honest question. Wouldn’t Markakis be cheaper for Os? No he doesn’t have the power Melvin is producing right now, but familiar.
I love Kakes, but I’d pass. Not sure how we’d even match up with the Braves?? The beauty of the Ubaldo+ for Melvin deal is that their contracts are fairly similar in cost. I doubt the Braves would take Ubaldo back in a deal.
Agreed sir, but like every “Teheran wouldn’t make it in AL East” thought, could Ubaldo be better served. Ack in NL? Ubaldo is owed say $20MM through next year, Markakis $25MM (both counting current season leftovers). Braves might very well take Ubaldo to get out of Markakis’ 2018 obligation. Just a thought. Heck, his power might even return. I just think given his family concern earlier in the season, would be good for him.
The Padres taking Jimenez is probably allowing them to obtain more prospects in the deal, or at least prospects of higher quality.
I’m curious regarding the return as the O’s system is ravaged. Nearly all of their top 30 on MLB.com are injured or preforming poorly. I think the Padres should attempt to acquire Brian Gonzalez in this deal.
my guess , the Padres will ask for RHP Cristian Alvarado in the deal. we shall see.
just taking a shot here, after scanning through the O’s top 30: Ofelky Peralta. preller wants high upside, big tools. he’s 19, but that’s right in the padres’ wheelhouse. doubt AJ wants some of those older, fringy types ranked higher than peralta
Jomar Reyes is an interesting prospect to keep an eye out here. He is 19 and fits the mold of the players that Preller has been acquiring for the 2019-2020 window to compete. 3rd baseman from the Dominican and is the Orioles number 2 overall prospect behind Hunter Harvey.
It would not suprise me the slightest if it is Melvin Upton Jr. & Andrew Cashner for Ubaldo Jimenez & Jomar Reyes.
So I agree Reyes is the most likely target, given Preller’s knowledge of the last few international classes.
That being said, ZERO chance this deal as constructed, includes Cashner.
Upton’s rehabbed his value to be worth what 5M a year? Jimenez is worth literally nothing.
Reyes makes up that difference, but no way he makes up the added value from Cashner, who might still get a QO this offseason and that pick is worth what, 10M?
I agree I think that 2 for 2 is good for both teams. I don’t know if it will be enough to get the Orioles over the top, but it would improve them where they need it.
I do NOT like this deal what so ever. Upton WAS good.. Cashner WAS good.. get someone on the upswing not has beens.. ughhhh
They should take a flier on an injured arm. Bundy or Harvey. Include a Cashner … Maybe Cashner and Upton for Bundy and Ubaldo
There is no chance the O’s give up Bundy, especially after the way he has been pitching in the rotation. I know it’s only been 2 starts but he has looked very good.
Totally agree. I had the same exact trade proposal in my head as Powers. Since I haven’t heard anything about Bundy since ST when they said he would pitch from the pen to try and avoid injuries. So I looked up his stats on the year. I know 2 games is the tiniest sample size but Bundy is the type of pitcher the Orioles are trying to trade for. No way he goes anywhere. I can see why you went there though. Prellar seems to be holding onto some prospect love from a few years ago. Traded for Myers, supposedly still has a man crush on Profar, and Bundy would fit right in with those two. The only way I can see a Bundy trade happening is if Baltimore thinks Ross is definitely coming back in mid August. Upton, Cashner and Ross for Bundy, Ubaldo++. But that is one of those out in left field if,if,if trades that frequent this site so often and will never happen in a million years. Also, I could be mistaking but I am pretty sure he signed a major league contract out of the draft. Again, I could be wrong but I think the last couple of years he has been injured have counted towards his service clock. If so, then he will be a free agent in 2020. Exactly the time Prellar expects to be contending again.
this trade don’t make sense for either team, the O’s need pitching
True, but no one needs Ubaldo lol. He’s terrible