Jon Heyman reports that Atlanta went after Justin Upton this past off-season
In a twitter discussion about Yoenis Cespedes that started yesterday, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman discussed some of the inside thinking that Detroit was going through before inking Justin Upton in January:
When signed Upton, Det was also talking to cespedes. Liked JU slightly more . Bid 4 yrs for YC, might well have gone 5.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 22, 2016
Tigers preferred Upton to cespedes, tho YC has even more thump. Loved J-Up consistency/personality. Trammell/gibson touted.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 22, 2016
But then here’s the kicker, to answer those thinking that the younger Upton was getting low-balled on short-term contract offers at that time:
It's not true @JUST_JUP only had 2/3-yr chances elsewhere. His old braves team, in fact, signaled willingness to go 6 yrs.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 23, 2016
Braves weren't going to top tigers 22M-plus aav so never made official offer. But it's believed ATL woulda gone 100M-plus
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) March 23, 2016
What Came Down
On January 18th, the Tigers agreed to a six-year deal with Justin for $132.75 million – $22.125 million per year with an every-popular ‘opt-out’ clause after year #2 with a 20-team no-trade clause.
Heyman does not have a figure that the Braves might have been willing to offer, though certainly they would have had to be thinking at least in the $18-20 million range to keep his agent from hanging up straightaway. An opt-out clause would have made sense, too, though the notion of having Upton on the club for six full years was a surprising one, and certainly would have caused a shake-up in an otherwise fairly complete off-season to that point.
Jockeying For Positions
So for fun, let’s say this had happened. What implications would have resulted?
- Baltimore inquired about Nick Markakis, and probably had done so by this point in time. The Braves would have almost certainly made that trade, for no other reason than salary relief (Markakis is set to make $11 million per year through 2018).
- This would have freed up right field for Justin, his original position.
- No other changes to the expected major league (position player) roster would have been necessary, though that would have increased the payroll by roughly $10 million.
- Recall that the Braves have lowered their major league payroll to divert monies for International market spending this July. That extra expenditure for Upton might have impacted those plans somewhat.
Certainly, adding Upton and removing Markakis would have changed the character of the lineup greatly with his more homers/more strikeouts profile. Over time, it would be interesting to see if the Seitzer philosophy would take hold, but that’s sheer speculation.
Either way, it’s an eye-opening revelation that Coppy was thinking that big that late in the off-season. Clearly, he’s still looking for that “big bat”.