Padres Among Teams Interested In Justin Upton

It has been rumored that the San Diego Padres are interested in trading for Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. Though he is extremely talented, Kemp has a long history of being injury prone and would cost the Padres a number of valuable players possibly including Yasmani Grandal. There might be a better option.

Jon Morosi of Fox sports tweeted that the Padres are one of three teams known to have interest in Braves outfielder Justin Upton, who is much younger and less injury prone than Kemp. How far have these talks progressed? That’s unknown.

In two seasons with Atlanta, Upton (27-years-old) has been a consistent power threat.

2013 saw him hit .263/.354/.464 with 27 home runs and 70 RBIs. His adjustment to Atlanta seemed easy.

This past season, he got even better. He hit .270/.342/.491 with 29 home runs and 102 RBIs. This was good enough to win his second Silver Slugger award (the first came with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2011.)

San Diego needs power and Upton would certainly provide it. His 29 home runs would have been well more than Grandal’s team leading 15 and his 102 RBIs would double Jedd Gyroko‘s 51, which was tops on the team.

This isn’t to say that Upton would be cheap, but he’s be a very ideal fit for San Diego.