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Justin Upton Trade Rumors: Texas Rangers Have Interest In D'Backs Outfielder

It's official: the Texas Rangers have interest in acquiring Justin Upton from the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Upton possesses some of the loudest tools in all of Major League Baseball, but is struggling this year. Upton is hitting .270/.351/.396 on the year, with just 12 doubles and seven home runs through Friday night's action.

Upton is signed through the 2015 season, so he would not be a rental piece. Upton is slated to make a shade under $10 million dollars in 2013, with an increase to $14.25 and $14.5 million dollars in 2014 and 2015.

As has been mentioned here ad nauseum, Jurickson Profar is off limits -- and should be, unless the Rangers will be acquiring either Bryce Harper or Mike Trout.

However, Upton seems like just the piece that Olt could and should be available for -- unless there's something seriously physically wrong with Upton.

We'll see how this story develops, but it seems much more likely that the Rangers would part with Olt for Upton, rather than for Cole Hamels or Zack Greinke, since Hamels or Greinke might only spend two months in a Rangers uniform before departing through free agency.

For more on the Rangers, check out Lone Star Ball.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.