Melvin Upton Jr.'s solid bounce-back season was enticing enough for the Toronto Blue Jays to acquire him from the San Diego Padres, Padres executive vice president and general manager A.J. Preller announced Tuesday.
"The San Diego Padres announced they have acquired right-handed pitcher Hansel Rodriguez from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. and cash considerations," the press release read.
"Thank you to the Padres organization, fans and teammates for all the support and the opportunity," Upton tweeted. "I enjoyed everything about my time in SD."
"Im [sic] excited to join my new Blue Jays teammates today and can't wait to help continue the winning tradition that's been built here," Upton added.
Jon Heyman of Today's Knuckleball reported the Padres will pay all but $5 million of Upton's remaining salary.
According to Spotrac, the 31-year-old Upton is earning $15.45 million this season and will make $16.45 million next year before his contract expires at the end of the 2017 season.
Not long ago, Upton's career looked like it might be over. He was still putting on a uniform, but he wasn't doing anything to help his team.
Upton's stint with the Atlanta Braves was especially difficult, as he amassed a negative-0.2 WAR during 2013 and 2014, per FanGraphs.
After the Braves dealt Upton to the Padres as part of the Craig Kimbrel trade in 2015, he turned things around. He hit a respectable .259/.327/.429, playing in just 87 games because of a foot injury that caused him to miss the first two months of the season.
Upton's numbers haven't completely returned to his peak years in Tampa Bay, but he's hitting for more power this season with 16 homers and is showing good speed with 20 stolen bases.
Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs wrote July 6 that Upton's performance this season makes him close to worth the salary he will make through 2017:
In the past year, Upton has clocked in with a 36% hard-hit rate, matching Jay Bruce and Andrew McCutchen. The Braves got burned. You do have to wonder how much another team would trust Upton, at this point. But he's made himself appealing again, at least to some extent, and his contract extends through next year, when he'll earn around $17 million. What's crazy now is it's not too hard to imagine Upton actually being worth that salary. All he'd have to be is something like an average outfielder, and lately he's been clearing that bar.
Upton has managed to reinvent himself after it looked like all hope was lost. He still has some limitations to his game—his on-base percentage isn't good (.304)—but he is making up for that by using his legs and pop.
There's always the chance Upton could regress because his career arc has never followed any kind of consistent pattern. But he does have more than 170 games of solid performance since 2015 that suggest he's going to hold good value until his contract expires.
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