And now, if either Upton or the Rays are to fulfill their potential, he may need to leave St. Petersburg.
Sports Illustrated and others have reported that Upton, who is batting an awful .225 this season, has gotten on the bad side of Rays manager Joe Maddon. This is no small feat. Maddon, a free spirit and forward-thinker from Hazleton, Pa., doesn’t really have a bad side. This is the guy who gave his blessing to the BRayser and DJ Kitty.
Looking back on that 2008 postseason, Upton’s numbers are jarring. He slugged .889 in the division series against the White Sox, then proceeded to hit home runs virtually at will against the Red Sox. He posted a .394 on-base percentage in the ALCS. In the division and league championship series combined, he piled up 38 total bases in 11 games.
For anyone who wasn’t paying attention, let’s say that again: 38 total bases in 11 games.
Yeah.
If Cole Hamels hadn’t willed the Phillies to victory in a weather-ravaged World Series, Upton might be remembered for taking hold of the 2008 playoffs and making it his own. Upton was coming off a disappointing regular season in which his power numbers fell off a cliff, but his postseason seemed to reveal that the regular season was an aberration and that he’d soon return to his 2007 form of batting .300 with a .508 slugging average, 24 homers and 82 RBIs.
That hasn’t happened. Even when Upton’s power numbers dipped in ’08, he still got on base. Even while his strikeout rate climbed the last two years, he still stole 40 bases a year. He didn’t always hustle, but he always brought something.
He’s brought nothing in 2011. His OBP is an abysmal .308. He’s on pace for career lows in doubles, and for his fewest walks and stolen bases since 2007, when he appeared in just 129 games.
Most importantly, for the first time in Upton’s career, the second overall pick in the 2002 draft has a young, talented center fielder to challenge him for his position. The Rays organization, and all of baseball, honestly, is giddy to see what 24-year-old Desmond Jennings can do. A 10-game cameo in which Jennings has batted .324 with a .444 OBP has hardly whetted their appetites.
If the Rays hope to compete for the AL East title in 2012 — trailing by 11 games with 54 games to play, this season is a lost cause — it may require Upton and the Rays parting ways, either in a waiver-wire deal or an offseason trade.
Upton’s not eligible to be a free agent until 2013, but he and the Rays can’t go on like this for two more seasons. Not if either wants to have the type of success many believe they are still capable of having.
