What to Toss, What to Keep (One Sixty-Two: Day 98)

Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.

Day Ninety-Eight: Justin Upton, Arizona Diamondbacks

A stack of old receipts. A bag of solidified rock salt. A crate of near-empty bathroom-cleaning sprays.

Gone. Tossed. Cleansed.

For many of us, there comes a point during the summer when we have time for cleaning. And I don’t just mean vacuuming and dusting – I mean getting rid of stuff. This past week, I found a few hours with some time on my hands. So I went ahead and parted with some possessions.

As the bags of garbage and recyclables mounted, I felt the house grow lighter and nimbler on its feet. I could walk through areas of the home and garage without feeling claustrophobic, and I could see us starting school in a month with a livable home to return to each day.

Over in Phoenix, the Arizona Diamondbacks are in the midst of some serious summer cleaning. They’ve got some work to do, as a 37-64 record has left them 23 games out of first place. For a team that played in the National League Championship Series just three years ago, this is unacceptable. So the team’s management has decided to go ahead and trade as many veterans as possible for young prospects who can help the team return to prominence.

Arizona started by unloading left fielder Conor Jackson, then fired the team’s manager and general manager. This past week, the team shipped out its ace starter, Dan Haren. Several more players are likely to leave Phoenix within the next 48 hours, all of them in exchange for young prospects. These trades will give Chase Field a new look, albeit one that might seem a bit foreign to the home crowd.

Even though it can be refreshing to throw stuff out, some things don’t get moved around when we clean. They are the staples of our home, the pieces we have no interest in getting rid of: the grandfather clock, the fine china, the family photos on the wall. We might dust them, but they’re going nowhere.

In Phoenix, the prized furniture at Chase Field sits in right field. His name is Justin Upton, he’s 22 years old, and he signed a six-year contract with the team in March. Some teams would give up most of the players on their roster in exchange for one Justin Upton. While he’s been stuck in a bit of a slump this season, Upton has an extraordinary ability to hit for average, to hit for power, to steal bases, and to hit with patience. He has Hall of Fame potential, and the Diamondbacks certainly are hoping to build their franchise around him.

So Upton remains, written into the Arizona lineup in Sharpie marker. As for the rest of the team, manager Kirk Gibson is likely using pencils for their names right now. The trash bags are out, the cleaning is under way, and the Diamondbacks will not look the same come Saturday. That’s not always a bad thing, as long as you don’t end up with an empty room when you’re done. But Justin Upton will ensure that the Diamondbacks’ home is never without some sparkle.