Melvin Upton is a Toronto Blue Jay. His career also makes for a great episode of “Behind the Music” (remember that show… on VH1? No? Here you go.)
If you are interested in the nuts and bolts of the trade, please read Kyle Matte’s piece from earlier. He covers it all in great detail.
I’m going to start way further back in time though, back when there wasn’t even a Melvin Upton playing professional baseball. And I’m going to show you how his journey is a perfectly good episode of VH1’s classic show.
First Thing: There Was Always Talent
In 2002 the Tampa Bay Devil Rays drafted second overall (they picked high up a lot when they were perennially awful), and selected a player named BJ Upton, a shortstop from Greenbrier Christian academy. Buck and Pat would be so happy to tell you he was a former shortstop, like almost every Major League player ever. He reached the Majors on August second, 2004. According to Wikipedia, he was the youngest (Devil) Ray of all-time, and the youngest player in the MLB at that moment. Upton would play mostly third and short in his rookie season, but was back in the minors in 2005 for the whole year. In 2006 he was exclusively a third baseman, then moved to second base starting the 2007 season and while the offense was good, did not impress defensively. After a quad injury, the Rays brought him back as their center fielder. It seems he found a home there; regardless of what the defensive metrics have said about him, the teams that have employed Upton have thought he was their best option in center almost all of the time, with the 2016 Padres being the lone exception, slotting him in left field instead. Upton was drafted young, debuted early, and played all over the diamond, until settling in to the most difficult outfield position. The man is an elite athlete. There is no question about why he was drafted when he was.
If this was an episode of “Behind the Music” this would be the opening chapter where the young, talented artists are playing obscure clubs to small crowds (sorry Tampa) and get discovered, then shoot to “overnight fame.” This part gets us about halfway to the first commercial break.
Second Thing: Sometimes He Wears Loafers
In nine years of MLB action, Upton has certainly had a fair share of memorable moments. His star began to rise in 2007; he was a 20/20 player that year, at only 22 years of age, and put together a .894 OPS. BJ was a young talented outfielder with speed. What wasn’t to like? Well, by 2008, you could find a few things not to like. Upton was benched twice in August of that year for not hustling. On Joe Maddon’s team. Yes, the ultimate kooky, laid back, “take care of your own business” manager. Maddon had to bench Upton for not running out a double play ball. Now, maybe that was a real wake up call for BJ, because in that same year, Upton would become a one man wrecking crew in the playoffs.
Upton would hit seven home runs in the post season in 2008, made even more impressive by the fact that he had only hit nine in his previous 640 plate appearances that year. It will go down as one of the great postseason performances in history, but it wasn’t enough for some to keep asking questions about ‘hustle.’ The Rays would lose the World Series to the Phillies in 2008, and wouldn’t reach those heights again. In some ways, Upton wouldn’t either. Accusations of “loafing” would haunt him later in his career, but that’s still to come.
Now we’ve reached the part of the show where the band is touring the world and headlining shows, but there are hints of some sort of rift between band members.
From 2009 to 2012, Upton would be a solid everyday player for Tampa, but his OPS would never reach higher that .759 in those years, and his stolen base totals would begin to taper off. His strikeouts would remain high, with over 150 every year. However, when he was in his walk year in 2012, he hit a career best 28 home runs. It cost him in plate discipline though, as he drew the fewest walks of his career to that point. His long track record of solid play made him an attractive free agent, especially at just 27 years old.
Third Thing: He’s A Very Rich Man
That attractiveness in free agency translated into a contract with the Atlanta Braves. The largest, in fact, that Atlanta had ever offered to player on the open market. B.J. (yes it was still B.J. at this point) was going to play with his brother Justin in “Hotlanta”, and they would hit many dingers and run around many outfields together (and provide the world with innumerable DMX “Upton here, Upton here” related puns).
This is the moment where the tale would be about fast cars and big houses and crazy Hollywood parties. Because money makes that stuff happen. And 73 million dollars is a lot of money.
And a Poor, Poor Man, but in a Different Way
So about the show format in “Behind the Music?” There was always a middle section where everyone in the band is on drugs and has horrible personal problems. The phrase “hit rock bottom” must be used at least once. If Melvin Upton’s career were that show, his first year in Atlanta would be that “rock bottom” segment. His slash line in 2013 was .184/.268/.289. That’s a .557 OPS, in a year where he was making over 12 million dollars. The Barves, as I like to call them, still gave him 391 PAs that season, just to see if his awfulness was a fluke. It wasn’t. And now his lackadaisical nature was really under the microscope, in a city know for the occasional racism, (Tomahawk Chop anyone) articles were written about what was fair and unfair to the under-performing Mr. Upton. Indeed, Upton did a lot of fiddling around with his swing, and it might be something that hurt him in this stage of his career. You know, like that period where the band gets all “experimental” and only their most loyal fans are interested in listening anymore.
He is a Man, but Also a Contract
When trying to obtain Craig Kimbrel for the back end of their bullpen in the 2015 offseason, Upton’s contract was the bitter pill the Padres had to swallow. Three years and 46.3 million dollars were left on Upton’s deal at the start of 2015, so the Padres were stuck using him somewhere if they were paying that much. Of course, he would first have to recover from a foot injury before that could happen. In an interesting twist, they wouldn’t be paying B.J. Upton anymore – it would be Melvin Upton instead. Perhaps tired of a baseball nickname (Bossman Junior) that didn’t fit anymore, Upton explained to the media that it would now be Melvin, like his father before him. Melvin would finally take the field for the Padres in June of 2015.
Melvin Plays a Lot Like B.J. Did
Does anyone remember how “Behind the Music” would end? That last part where there was a comeback from a hiatus to once again climb to the top? After a long recovery period, Upton trotted back out into center field, and…. played a lot like Rays Era B.J. Upton. He stole nine bases in limited time, and his OPS was .757. In 2016, his OPS is .743, and he’s stolen 20 bases. His walk rate is low, at 6.1 percent, and his 28 percent strikeout rate is a shade higher than his good years, but he’s not 24 anymore. By some strange miracle, he looks a whole lot like the player who signed a free agent deal out of Tampa, aging normally.
He’s Not B.J., but he is A Blue Jay
And now Upton has come to Toronto. He’s on familiar turf, you could say. And by that I mean Astroturf, of course, which he hasn’t seen very much since his days at the Trop. The best part, in true “Behind the Music” fashion, is that the contract isn’t coming with him this time. Since San Diego is paying most of the load, Upton is only owed five million dollars over the next two years in Toronto, and value he provides above that will be viewed as a bonus by those who fill up the Rogers Centre on a daily basis.
The “Behind the Music” director cuts to everybody in nice modern clothes, talking about ‘new beginnings’. One of the band’s most well known tunes plays underneath the interviews. Life is right again.
Roll credits.
a VH1 production
Lead Photo: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports