Saturday morning Jays trade rumors: Upton, Cashner?

Ken Rosenthal tweeted that the Jays have had conversations with the Padres about Melvin Upton and Andrew Cashner.

Upton is an interesting idea, though it goes against my personal rule of not trading for guys named Melvin. He is hitting .259/.307/.444, with 16 home runs and 20 steals. That’s not a bad number of home runs considering the park that the Padres are playing in.

It does seem that the Jays are interested in improving our defense in right. Upton would do that, and would allow the Jays to play Jose Bautista at DH, which would, hopefully keep him healthy the rest of the season.

Upton is owed $16,450,000 next season.

I’d think that, if improving defense important to the Jays, Dalton Pompey might be an idea, but they don’t seem to be thinking that way,

Sportsnet tells us that the Jays are also scouting Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson and catcher Carlos Ruiz. It sounds like the Jays would like an improvement in the backup catcher spot (no kidding). Sportsnet also mentions that Erik Kratz was outrighted by the Pirates.

And they suggest that we might be interested in lefty reliever Zach Duke, if the White Sox decide they are sellers. If Brett Cecil doesn’t suddenly remember how he was getting people out the past few years.