The first seven weeks of the 2016 Major League Baseball season have been a struggle for Detroit Tigers outfielder Justin Upton. In the off-season, Upton was a highly sought after free agent and the Tigers would sign him to a six-year, $132.75 million deal. Upton was expected to add to an already potent Tigers lineup as for his MLB career, he has averaged 25 home runs and 83 runs batted in per season during his nine-year career. But 2016 has been a struggle for Upton as he is batting .223 with a pair of home runs, and 10 runs batted in, while striking out 66 times which is currently tops in the American League. Upton’s slugging percentage of .319 is the lowest of his career as he doesn’t appear to be the same player that hit 26 home runs last season as a member of the San Diego Padres.
Justin Upton
Unlike Upton’s other stops in Major League Baseball, he has yet to get comfortable in Detroit. This is Upton’s first venture into the American League as his first nine seasons were spent with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Atlanta Braves, and Padres, which also happened to be warm weather cities (albeit that the Diamondbacks play under a retractable roof). But Upton who has been prone to striking out simply appears to be off at the plate as he has yet to get into a rhythm. The calendar has yet to shift to June, but already Upton has 19 games in which he has struck out at least twice as the “golden sombrero” of striking out four times in a game can’t be that far around the corner.
Upton’s struggles were magnified earlier this month when the Tigers had a stretch where they lost 11 of 12 games. And during that stretch, Upton saw his batting average dip 44 points from .252 to .208. The Tigers have won six of their last seven games as they are currently 21-22 which finds them in fourth place in the American League Central, but they are just 4.5 games behind the first place Chicago White Sox. And if the Tigers are going to be a playoff team in 2016, Upton and his bat are going to need to be a big part of it.
If Upton is pressing to live up to his massive contract, he should take step back and look at the talent that he is surrounded by in Detroit. The Tigers lineup features the likes of first baseman Miguel Cabrera, outfielder J.D Martinez, second baseman Ian Kinsler, and designated hitter Victor Martinez as it is hands down the most talent that has ever been surrounded by. All of these players are quality hitters with Cabrera being a future Hall of Famer. Upton doesn’t have to do it all by himself as there is a wealth of talent that is around him in Motown, and once he realizes that, it will be terrific for both him and the Tigers.
The weather is beginning to get warmer and hopefully for Upton’s sake and that of the Tigers as well, he can get it going. Upton has never been a .300 hitter, and at this point of his career, you can’t expect that aspect of his game to change. But what Upton can do is to seek more quality at-bats which will only add to the depth of the Tigers lineup. Last week Upton did have a five-game winning streak, while Tigers manager Brad Ausmus gave him the day off yesterday. Upton did come off of the bench as a pinch-hitter in the Tigers 9-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays to draw a walk as he appears to be seeing the ball better at the plate. However this version of Justin Upton through the first two months of the 2016 Major League Baseball season isn’t the version of the player that we’ve seen to nearly the past decade, and you just have to wonder when he’ll truly reappear.
Source: Baseball-reference.com
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