Justin Upton All Too Familiar with Drama, Uprooting of MLB Trade Season

NEW YORK — The answers sounded rehearsed, as if Justin Upton had practiced them 1,000 times.

In a way, he has.

Perhaps there is another star player who has been mentioned in trade stories more often than Upton, the outfielder who plays (for now) for the San Diego Padres. Maybe Cole Hamels or Troy Tulowitzki or David Price could relate.

What makes Upton different is that he's been through the whole deal before, twice, from the rumors to the reality. He's just 27 years old and already on his third team, and if all the talk is right, he should be trying out a fourth team by the end of the week.

Since he's a free agent at the end of the year, maybe he'll be on to a fifth team then.

"That's another thing I'm not worried about," he said Tuesday. "That's months and months away."

He says he's not worried about Friday's 4 p.m. non-waiver trade deadline. He said he sees when his name is mentioned in trade stories but that it doesn't bother him as much as it once did.

"Obviously, it gets easier," he said.

Obviously, it's not bothering him too much.

"The last game he played, he hit a ball 400 feet to left-center," teammate (for now) Jedd Gyorko said. "So I think he's handling it just fine."

Upton's numbers this season are down a little from the last two years with the Atlanta Braves, but he's still an impact hitter. He's of interest to teams such as the Baltimore Orioles, the New York Mets and others, and while that doesn't guarantee he'll be dealt, the Padres' 47-53 record and Upton's status as a free-agent-to-be make it likely he will be.

It could be the Orioles, or maybe it could be the Mets. If Upton has a preference, he hides it well.

"I'm a Padre," he said. "I'm here to help this team win."

He couldn't help Tuesday night, going hitless as the Padres nearly went hitless against impressive Mets rookie Noah Syndergaard. James Shields, another guy acquired to be a Padres star but now a trade-rumor staple, was the losing pitcher.

"As far as I'm concerned, I'm going to be here for quite a while," said Shields, who signed a four-year, $75 million contract with San Diego when he was a free agent last winter.

Upton is in the last year of his own contract, a six-year, $51.25 million deal he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks in spring training 2010. He was just 22 years old, but he had already been an All-Star. This wasn't going to be his last contract, but he had no reason to believe he'd ever play for another team.

Seven months later, the trade talk began.

He was going to go to the New York Yankees then or to the Boston Red Sox. It all played out in public, just as it did a year-and-a-half later, when Upton was going to the Pittsburgh Pirates or to the Yankees again or to the Texas Rangers.

And even though none of those trades actually happened, all the talk basically made it inevitable that he eventually would be dealt. It all became too much, and it got to the point where the Diamondbacks believed they couldn't keep him.

Laurence Kesterson/Associated Press

He went to Atlanta a few months after his brother Melvin Jr. (then known as B.J.) had signed with the Braves as a free agent. The Braves believed having the two of them together would help both. It didn't work.

Over a five-month span, the Braves traded both Uptons, both to San Diego. Melvin is an overpaid bench player now, a Padre not because San Diego wanted him but because taking him was the price for acquiring closer Craig Kimbrel.

Now, Kimbrel could be traded again. And so could Justin Upton.

Melvin Upton Jr. just watches. He was a trade-rumor staple in his days with the Tampa Bay Rays, but now no one asks him where he thinks he'll go. He only gets asked about Justin.

"He's in a good place," Melvin said Tuesday. "If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, he's in a place he likes. He's not letting the free-agent year bother him. He's pretty strong mentally."

A few minutes later, Justin walked into the clubhouse and nodded to the crowd of reporters waiting at his locker. There was no news, but he was the story, giving answers to all the questions he had heard so many times before.

"Our goal is to win tonight," he said. "And on Friday, that decision is [Padres general manager] A.J. Preller's."

Change the name of the GM, and it could have been 2012 in Arizona or last year with the Braves. Upton hasn't ever been traded in July, but he's been through this before.

Obviously, it gets easier.

Danny Knobler covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report.

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