St. Louis Cardinals Hot Stove: Is Justin Upton a viable option?

A couple of weeks back, I talked about what the St. Louis Cardinals could do, if Jason Heyward chooses to sign elsewhere. One player that I completely missed and should have given consideration to is Justin Upton. Upton has what the Cardinals have been missing; an impact bat to nestle in the middle of the order and jumpstart the offense. So, could he be a viable option for the St. Louis Cardinals to consider? Let’s take a look.

Positives

Justin Upton has consistently put about the same numbers since about 2009, he will hit for about .260-.290, with close to 30 homers and close to 30 doubles. He is a player that other teams pitch carefully to as one swing of the bat will potentially change the game. Something that the Cardinals have been missing since Carlos Beltran left in 2013.

Beltran is actually a pretty comparable player for Upton. They both play in the OF and both have 30 home run potential with a slightly below .300 average. Upton could easily come in and add a lot of pop to this Cardinals’ team, as did Beltran in 2012-2013, just not enough to give up on signing Heyward. It is however, enough to consider if he still around if/when the Cardinals lose out on him. The career 121 wRC+ is right on par with what Heyward produced this past season and would be very good to have on this team.

Negatives

I do want to caution you however, Upton has not played RF since the 2013 season with the Braves, where he had a -1.5 UZR at the position in 419.1 innings. This was after a season in which he posted a -3.1 UZR with the Diamondbacks, after posting pretty good UZR’s at the position in the past, thus the reason behind the move to LF.

So, in terms of defense, it may be a a bit unrealistic to expect Upton to play RF, which drops him out of consideration with the Cardinals. However, if I am John Mozeliak (unfortunately I am not), I at least give Upton some consideration to come and play in RF.

I was watching MLB Network’s Hot Stove show earlier today, and they got to talking about Heyward, Yoenis Cespedes, and Upton and how all three were going to have big pay days. In reference to Upton, they metioned that he was the most consistent offensive performer. Which is just not true, Derrick Goold brought to attention last week that Upton has had a wildly inconsistent OPS his past 12 months.