Per mlbtraderumors.com J. Upton rejected a trade to Seattle. Two questions... what kind of package was Seattle willing to find up? And does JD get more motivated to make a deal???

So Kevin Towers spent all this time since the trade deadline saying they didn't want to trade him. He was trying to convince everyone that they wanted to trade Kubel instead. Obviously no one believed him, but it was his posture to try to drive his price up by saying we don't want to so you have to wow us. Well now the cat is out of the bag that they ARE trying to trade him, and they just lost a lot of leverage. I'm sure whatever package Seattle put together it was the best one out there for Upton, even better than the Rangers. Well Towers is probably sh***ing all over himself right now because Upton's price just went down. Does this mean the Rangers will get him now? Probably not. I just don't gauge JD's interest on him being that high. My guess is after this embarassment Towers will try to keep the terms of the trade a secret, and hold Upton saying he was blown away by Seattle, and then proceed to trade Kubel just to try and save face.

To answer your first question, the offer was probably substantial since SEA doesn't have a great SS prospect. To answer your second question, no, I don't think JD is in any rush. He's going to wait as close as he can to Spring Training, and if the Towers' price doesn't come down, we'll stand pat.

This could be a leverage move for Towers or Upton according to analysts.

It must have been very substantial bc Texas, from what I have read, has offered a very nice package.

Yeah, I definitely didn't mean trade deadline. I was talking about the winter meetings. Sorry for the major faux paux.

If Towers truly believes he has solved his SS problems and Davidson is as good as Olt for 3b, then pitching is the natural AZ target. If this is the case then the Rangers don't match up as well as teams with pitching to trade. This is not necessarily a good omen for the Rangers.

But Eric, why would Towers want another SS? He already has the next Jeter.

I could see Towers wanting 2 years of Andrus to allow for the "next Jeter" to mature. I don't buy it as a posturing move by Towers. What does he have to gain from telling Upton if you want to leave the only team you can go to is one of the ones on your no trade list? That's a terrible move. Telling him in that way, that you want to leave, but we are going to force you to stay here. Gee, let's take an already clearly unmotivated player, and make him even more unmotivated. Definitely not posturing by Towers, and I don't doubt it was a substantial offer from Seattle because they have actually been working hard this offseason to get better now, and have been shunned at every turn. They are probably getting desperate trying to win while they still have Felix since they missed out on his window for a giant return like the Marlins (who are also going to miss theirs) could now get for Giancarlo. Bottom line is Towers was in no way posturing with Upton. He is a dumb GM, but no one is that dumb, right?

John Heyman writes that the projected deal was Upton for Furbush, Pryor, Nick Franklin, and one oh Walker/Hultzen/Paxton.

MLB Trade Rumors has been update with the same information. Is there anyone who knows enough about Seattle's prospects to make a comparison of that package to something the Rangers may have offered, say something like Olt, Grimm and Buckel?

Rohde, Gregorious is a utility infielder. Nothing more.

A comparison might be olt, buckel/perez/grimm, lindblom, sheppers.

Furbush and Pryor both have the potential to be very strong bullpen pieces. As a starter, Furbush hasn't had much success. However, last year he posted a 2.72 era while holding left handers to a .404 OPS. Pryor has a fastball that can reach 100MPH, is 22 years old and has had dominating success in AA. In 20 innings in AAA he didn't give up an earned run. Nick Franklin is currently a SS however isn't expected to stick at the position. The best non-pitching prospect in their organization. Hultzen, Paxton, and Walker are all expected to be at least number 2 or 3 starters.

Overall, a very strong package from Seattle. Could the rangers beat that? Probably. However 6 years each (except for Furbush) is overall a more tempting package than just two years of Andrus.

According to BP, Walker and Paxton are ranked 1 and 5 in the M's system, and Franklin is 4. Pretty nice package.

This can go in many directions. It tells Upton we do not want you, so he maybe just trying to gain time or leverage or Uehara-ing both the Mariners and the Diamondbacks. Last year what did the Rangers do after failing to trade Uehara, tried again and failed, then Uehara stayed the whole year with the Rangers. The trade still has a good chance to got through, happens like that frequently. OR, Towers is just posturing, wants to say trading Upton is now a dead issue, and to prove it we should hear of a trade of Upton to the Blue Jays, Cubs or Red Sox- the other teams Upton has a no-trade clause. OR, that Upton wants to demonstrate how ticked off he is with his FO, and to demonstrate refuses FOR THE MOMENT to be traded. Either way, it does not bode well for the Rangers. Upton is either going to another team or this attempted trade shows the Rangers that Upton is simply to expensive, and is far out of proportion to what the Rangers would gain with the acquisition.

Or it could simply mean that KT liked what Seattle offered, but that Upton didn't want to go there.

I would trade Elvis for the Seattle package.

That's a package that I don't think we'd want to touch...

Walker is the #4 prospect in baseball and 1st in Mariners system.

Franklin is the #29 prospect in baseball and # 3 in Mariners system...

Pryor is # 6 in mariners system right handed power reliever with potential of being a top setup guy...

Furbush had a really good last year....

Comparable package to me, looks something like: profar, perez, font and scheppers....
or profar, perez, buckel and scheppers...

I'm out on either one of those... i'd still consider elvis and perez,....

and i agree, i'd trade elvis for that package, but Elvis isn't what they want or need....

clearly they want him more than we do

didn't the diamondbacks want andrus before the deal fell through?

that reference to them not wanting or needing elvis was the comment that : i'd trade Elvis for that package from Seattle"...

It's posturing by Towers. It was a great deal to take, but he knew Upton would deal out.
It simply shows there's movement and what Towers intake would be to make a deal for Upton.
It's called a "carpetbagger deal".

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/01/rangers-moving-on-from-justin-upton-1.html