Arizona Diamondbacks trade OF Justin Upton and 3B Chris Johnson to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for OF/3B Martin Prado, RHP Randall Delgado, SS Nick Ahmed, RHP Zeke Spruill, and 3B/1B Brandon Drury.

This trade is pretty unbelievable- the Braves acquire Justin Upton to join his brother B.J. Upton in their outfield, but in order to make it happen they’re trading away a very good player in Prado along with three solid prospects including a former top prospect in Delgado. The Braves needed an outfielder, but a big part of their thinking had to be that bringing Justin and B.J. together might be exactly they need for everything to click for them, although no one knows what the chances of that happening are. From the Diamondbacks’ standpoint, they get a player who could very well be better than Upton next season in Prado along with three promising prospects. The issue, though, is that Delgado has been enigmatic the past couple of years and Spruill and Ahmed are not players with very much upside. It had to sting for the Braves to have to trade Prado, who they thought would be a major part of their team next year, but they’re getting Justin Upton at the lowest price they were ever going to get him, and if he can recover from a down 2012 and B.J. and him can positively influence one another, this trade will be a major victory for them. In any event, cross Justin Upton off the list of potential Rays trade targets, and more importantly, congrats to B.J. as he’ll get to play with his brother for the first time as a professional.

It seemed crazy from the start and it still is. But the Rays do have a nonzero chance of signing free agent outfielder Michael Bourn. Jon Heyman discussed the Rays chances of signing Bourn and listed them as his 7th most-likely destination describing him as a possible fit but “definite longshot.” But simply the fact that they were listed as a suitor is pretty unbelievable. The chances are that Bourn will not end up with the Rays, but it’s not impossible and don’t throw out the possibility completely.

The Rays have made major changes to their minor league coaching staffs according to a team press release. Brady Williams, the manager of Low-A Bowling Green in 2012, moves up to High-A Charlotte, ex-Rays infielder Jared Sandberg, who managed Short Season-A Hudson Valley, moves up to Bowling Green, and Michael Johns, who had managed Advanced-Rookie Princeton, is getting promoted to Hudson Valley. Princeton’s manager will be Danny Sheaffer, who will be spending his 33rd year in pro baseball but first in the Rays’ organization, while the GCL Rays will be managed by Jim Morrison, who had managed Charlotte in 2012. Congrats to everyone on the promotions, and hopefully they can help guide the Rays’ prospects to a promising season this year.

Fernando Rodney is coming off a magical season. But can he come even remotely close to repeating it? Stephani Bee of Baseball Prospectus writes that while Rodney’s season certainly looks like a fluke given his career numbers and because his breakout was not accompanied by a new pitch or anything of the sort, maybe his decision to abandon his four-seam fastball and slider to throw only his unhittable sinker and changeup could help him continue to be among the best relievers in baseball. We can’t expect Rodney’s ERA to be right around 0.61, and even expecting it to be under 1.50 might be a little far-fetched. But Rodney made a breakthrough last season, and the Rays believe he can continue to be as good of a closer as they’ve ever seen in 2013.

To close, Rays fans have to be a little sad about this news: Dan Johnson has signed a minor league deal with the rival New York Yankees. Best of luck to Johnson next season, but Rays fans had to have been hoping that the Game 162 hero could be coming back to Tampa Bay, and it’s at least a little alarming to know that there’s a chance that he could be coming to the plate against the Rays in big spots next season if he cracks the Yankees’ roster.

Outfielder Nate Schierholtz signed with the Cubs on a 1-year, 2.25 million dollar contract yesterday, but as it turned out, he came very close to being a Ray. Jerry Crasnick of ESPN tweeted that the Rays finished a close second to the Cubs in pursuit of Schierholtz. Schierholtz, who will turn 29 in February, posting a .257/.321/.407 line (104 OPS+) with 8 doubles, 5 triples, 6 homers, and 21 RBI in 114 games but just 269 plate appearances. Schierholtz is a left-hand hitting right fielder with some power and great defense (9.2 UZR/150 in right field in 2724 innings), and he’s great against right-handed pitching, managing a .280/.360/.466 line (120 sOPS+) with all 6 of his home runs and a .266/.319/.413 line for his career. Schierholtz doesn’t have a major career platoon split, posting a .732 OPS versus right-handers and a .708 OPS against lefties but there was a major difference in 2012 as his OPS against lefties was just .444 (38 OPS+) just over half his .832 OPS against righties. Schierholtz could have been a platoon partner with former Cubs prospect Brandon Guyer in right field- but Guyer hit absolutely fine against righties at Triple-A, managing an .860 OPS (although that was lower than his .975 mark against lefties), and although Guyer is completely unproven in the big leagues, it doesn’t make much sense for the Rays to platoon him before they even get a sense of what kind of big league player he’ll be, and signing Schierholtz would likely force them to do that because of his struggles versus lefties. And if Guyer did hit well versus pitchers from both sides, what would the Rays do with Schierholtz? But the major reason Schierholtz did not sign with the Rays was because they acquired Yunel Escobar and suddenly outfield was not such a major need for them anymore because Escobar playing shortstop allows Ben Zobrist to potentially hold down an outfield spot, and from Schierholtz’s standpoint, he was not going to get as much playing time. The Rays chose Escobar over Schierholtz, a move that certainly makes sense as Escobar is a solid starting shortstop while Schierholtz is a platoon outfielder. Schierholtz could have been a solid fit for the Rays, but the Rays found a better alternative to make the signing not work out and good luck to him in Chicago.

Speaking of Chicago, Jeff Keppinger‘s departure from the Rays is official as he turned his huge season with the Rays in 2011 into a 3-year, 13 million dollar contract with the other team in Chicago, the White Sox. There were rumors that Keppinger would be heading to the Yankees and that would have been frustrating for Rays fans, but thankfully he got his long-term deal somewhere else and now Rays fans can wish him nothing but the best (except for when he’s playing the Rays).

Finally, Jon Paul Morosi of Fox Sports sent out an interesting tweet yesterday.

Sources tell me and @jonmorosi that #Royals may be at critical stage in decision on whether to trade Myers for an SP such as #Rays’ Shields.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 6, 2012

To clarify, nothing is happening on the trade front between the Rays and Royals at the moment, but the Royals are making an internal decision about whether it makes sense for them to trade promising outfield prospect Wil Myers for a frontline starting pitchers such as the Rays’ James Shields. Myers would be a major acquisition for the Rays, and if the Royals offer Myers and another good prospect or two for Shields, it would be awfully hard for them not to accept. We’re going to have to stay tuned to see what the Royals decide and what eventually transpires.

Believe it or not, Dan Johnson hit just .168 in 259 plate appearances with the Rays. But it was most clutch .168 you have ever seen. In his first at-bat as a Ray back in 2008, he slammed a solo homer off of Jonathan Papelbon. In 2010, he slammed a walk-off home run to beat the Red Sox and had a 2-homer game, including a go-ahead 2-run shot off of Phil Hughes in the 7th inning, on September 15th to put the Rays up half a game in the AL East over the Yankees. And in 2011, his first homer was a go-ahead blast in the 9th inning, and his second was legendary, his Game 162 game-tying homer off of Cory Wade that sent the game into extra innings.

The Rays tried to make Johnson into a regular player in 2011, and the experiment failed miserably as he had just a .115/.179/.167 line on May 19th before getting sent down to the minor leagues. But Johnson’s numbers at Triple-A are amazing as he has a .294/.408/.533 line 679 games with an unbelievable (and slightly depressing) 141 home runs to go along with more walks than strikeouts, and Johnson has actually been a productive big league regular before. In 2005, Johnson posted a .275/.355/.451 line with 12 doubles, 15 homers, 58 RBI, and a 52-50 strikeout to walk ratio in 108 games for the Oakland A’s and after a poor 2006, he came back with a .236/.349/.418 line with 20 doubles, 18 homers, 62 RBI, and a 77-72 strikeout to walk ratio in 117 games in 2007. Obviously that was quite a while ago, and Johnson is 33 years old now. But if Johnson is willing to take a minor league deal again, it’s not like the Rays have any better first base options than him right now. Why not bring him back and see what he can do?