Towers: Trade cuts ‘the umbilical cord’ between Chris Young and Justin Upton

Baseball is a business first and foremost, there’s no two ways around that.

Losing teammates and close friends to free agency or trades is an almost inevitable part of the game. With that said, it doesn’t make the process any easier for ballplayers.

Tuesday, former Diamondbacks outfielder Chris Young told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns & Gambo he wasn’t surprised that he was shipped off to Oakland over the weekend in a three-player trade that sent Cliff Pennington and minor league infielder Yordy Cabrera to Arizona.

After six years in Arizona, Young admitted he saw the writing on the wall given the D-backs’ crowded outfield situation moving forward.

For two-time All-Star Justin Upton — Young’s closest friend on the team — the news probably wasn’t as easy to digest.

D-backs general manager Kevin Towers said his recent discussions with Upton had less to do with Young’s potential departure and more to do with the talented right fielder’s future with the team heading into the 2013 season.

“More of my discussions with Justin were about himself,” Towers told Arizona Sports 620’s Doug & Wolf Tuesday. “If people asked about him and not CY, I talked to him about it. But my conversations with CY were about CY.”

Towers also shed light on the close bond Upton and Young built during their time in the organization together, but suggested the trade shouldn’t affect either of their psyches given the fact both are still under the age of 30.

“With Justin being young and CY being young, I don’t think it’s such a bad thing,” said Towers. “The umbilical chord has kind of been cut. Those guys were tied at the hip since they came into this system.”