A year after going all-in, the Padres' best position player is Melvin Upton Jr.
When the Padres acquired him, Upton was seen as a salary dump forced on the team to land marquee talent during a 'win now' push
By
Matt Snyder
•
1 min read
If you live in San Diego, maybe consider this a feel-good story for a much-maligned player. Or maybe just take a walk outside because you live in the most beautiful city in America.
If you don't, this is probably the biggest possible indictment of where the Padres are right now.
Because the best position player on the Padres is Melvin Upton, Jr. The artist formerly known as B.J. Upton.
Check in at baseball-reference.com and Upton has a 1.5 WAR with Jon Jay second at 0.9. Over at Fangraphs, it's Upton at 1.1 with Wil Myers second at 0.9 (and please don't bring up Matt Kemp with him making outs almost 76 percent of the time he steps in the box). Upton is slashing .257/.326/.415 with five doubles, two triples, six homers, 20 RBI, 19 runs and nine steals.
He's been clutch, too. Check this out:
And this:
So, sure, I guess we could frame this as a feel-good story.
It's just that ... he's still only at a 104 OPS+ with 48 strikeouts against 18 walks, and he's making $15.45 million this season. He's set to make $16.45 million next season. And he's freaking Melvin Upton, Jr. Can any team look at you with a straight face and say he's their best player when they're trying to contend?
These are the same Padres that gutted their entire farm system in the offseason (and late in the 2014 season) leading into 2015. It wasn't supposed to be this way. The elder Upton is only on the Padres because the Braves attached him to Craig Kimbrel in a trade just before the start of last season.
And he's the best position player on the Padres in 2016? That's relatively depressing, but at least it's happening in San Diego. Go outside and ignore baseball!
