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On Wednesday night, the big story at Citi Field was the failed trade that would have sent Carlos Gomez back to the Mets for Zack Wheeler and Wilmer Flores. The deal was agreed to, but it later fell apart, reportedly due to concerns over Gomez's medicals.

Meanwhile, in the other dugout, the Padres had several trade candidates of their own on the field. Tyson Ross started the game and left after only five innings and 83 pitches, but he was hit in the leg by a comebacker and his quad stiffened up.

Justin Upton, one of San Diego's other prime pieces of trade bait, was removed from the game in the eighth inning for no apparent reason. Needless to say, the move was followed by a ton of trade speculation. Upton was pulled? He was traded! Where? For whom???

There was no trade, however. Upton has not been traded and he is in the team's lineup on Thursday. Following Wednesday's game, interim Padres manager Pat Murphy admitted he pulled Upton to troll the media, sending them into a frenzy trying to dig up trade details.

I think Murphy is joking! But I hope he's not. That would be some Grade A trolling, not only of the media, but fans as well. This is the time of year when trade speculation runs rampant whenever a player is removed from the game.

Hopefully this doesn't become a trend though. There are enough trade rumors to follow without managers randomly removing players from games.

Padres interim manager Pat Murphy had some fun with the media on Wendesday.
Padres interim manager Pat Murphy had some fun with the media on Wendesday. (USATSI)