Reports: Five teams interested in Atlanta Braves’ Justin Upton

Upon waking up this morning, the Atlanta Braves already were in the news once again. This time, it was an expansion over a report that had come out yesterday regarding left fielder Justin Upton. While yesterday it was reported that the Texas Rangers are interested in acquiring the left fielder, today news came out that they are joined by four other teams who wouldn’t mind having Upton patrolling their outfield.

Joining the Rangers are the Cincinnati Reds, Seattle Mariners, San Diego Padres and Houston Astros. All of these are interesting places for the younger Upton to land, but all for different reasons. The Reds have arms to move like Johnny Cueto or Mat Latos (or, a move I would have liked to see last year, Alfredo Simon), but just one of those pitchers might not be enough in order to move Upton. Also, he’d be in the same division as Jason Heyward, which would be interesting to say the least.

The Mariners would have been interesting yesterday, as many though it’d be a big-name for big-name deal invloving Kyle Seager, but a $100 million deal signed yesterday squashed that. However, there is a minor leaguer by the name of Maxx Tissenbaum who’s name has also been thrown out, and he’d be quite the asset to have.

The Padres inquired about Heyward before the deal to the Cardinals was made and are in the Upton race, it would seem. The most the Braves really could get would be some pitching, and in the Braves’ rotation it’d probably be a third or fourth guy in the rotation so I’d be surprised to see that where he land.

The Astros, in my mind, are the most interesting but also the most difficult. They were, according to reports, one of the first teams to inquire about Upton, and are seemingly a team on the rise (not to mention Bo Porter is now the Braves’ 3rd Base Coach). Guys like Jose Altuve, Dexter Fowler and George Springer seem like a Braves’ fan wet dream in terms of guys to bring in and build around (especially Springer), but you have to think that all three of those guys are in the ‘Stros’ plans of continuing to build, and not only will they find it difficult to move them, but might not be able to take up the tab on Upton’s contract.

Justin Upton is going to make a lot of money when free agency hits, but Braves fans might have to settle with the fact that a team is seeing him as a one-year rental, and much like we saw with Heyward and the Cardinals, the return might not be what he’s truly worth.

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