UPDATE 3:51 PM: Jon Heyman is hearing that there’s nothing serious with Justin Upton yet. He also says the Pirates are “probably not a fit” and that they won’t include Cole or Taillon.
UPDATE 1:16 PM: Jon Morosi reports that the Pirates have a scout in Chicago watching Upton this weekend.
UPDATE 12:45 PM: Stark said on Baseball Tonight that the Pirates could get Upton without losing Gerrit Cole or Jameson Taillon. He also said they were including Starling Marte in the discussions. Keeping Cole and Taillon out of the deal definitely changes the outlook, although it all depends on what the other pieces are beyond Marte.
12:42 PM: We’ve heard a lot of rumors about the Pittsburgh Pirates and Justin Upton. The latest rumors said that the Pirates had expressed interest, but that interest didn’t sound like anything more than due diligence. There have also been rumors that the Pirates don’t match up well for Upton.
Jayson Stark of ESPN says that the Pirates are emerging as serious bidders for Upton. The price for Upton would be high, so if the reports are correct Pirates are emerging as serious bidders, it would mean they’re interested in giving up some big trade pieces. I’d imagine “serious bidders” would include discussions about one or two of the team’s top prospects.
July 15, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Keeping Cole and Taillon definitely sits better with me, and I can accept losing Marte if Upton already is what we can expect Marte to be. It almost sounds like Arizona is getting anxious to move Upton.
July 15, 2012 at 1:43 pm
i do not understand the concept of trading upton for marte…upton has been average this year with 7 HR OPS of .744 and a War of 1.0..cant marte do that as a rookie!?!??!?!?!?
July 15, 2012 at 2:27 pm
maybe not….Justin was FOURTH in MVP votes last year.
July 15, 2012 at 2:38 pm
last year..this year he has a shoulder injury and has not performed and is getting kicked out of arizona something is up
Twitter: divito3
July 15, 2012 at 2:31 pm
But Upton will do it for 10-14 million per year instead of the league minimum
July 15, 2012 at 2:37 pm
It would be great if we could substitute Tabata for Marte in this deal.
July 15, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Nick Cafardo’s column in the Boston Globe today says Kevin Towers wants “a package that includes a third baseman and/or shortstop and something else.” If that’s accurate, the Pirates don’t seem like a good fit unless Alvarez is part of the talks and I really doubt that.
July 15, 2012 at 2:55 pm
They want a SS? How about Marte plus Barmes and a couple of unknown, minor league pitchers?
July 15, 2012 at 5:55 pm
With that 3:51 update we’re back to where we were before Stark sent his tweet. Which is: we’re not a good fit. ESPN strikes again!
July 15, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Tim, I was wondering what the implications of a draft pick traded (the one we get in the lottery this week) would have on a trade like this. Would Marte, Lincoln and a comp. first round be enough to seal the deal?