Padres manager pulls Justin Upton from game as part of Trade Deadline prank

On July 29, 2015, in Curve Balls, San Diego

The Trade Deadline is, to put it mildly, a pretty crazy time. So, the baseball world looks for clues -- anything that might give us some idea of what's about to happen to our favorite players and teams. We frantically refresh Twitter. We await word from Deadline-whisperer John Axford. And above all, we have Hug Watch: Breathlessly watching games to see if a player will be suddenly pulled from action and start bidding farewell to his teammates, signaling that he's been dealt.

#Padres int manager Pat Murphy said he pulled Upton and Kemp late to get them off their feet "and give you guys something to think about."
— Joe Trezza (@JoeTrezz) July 30, 2015

You can imagine the anticipation, then, after a surprising development in the Padres-Mets game on Wednesday: San Diego's Justin Upton was removed from the game in the eighth inning for no apparent reason. Had another Deadline domino fallen? Where would he be going? What was going on? The baseball world was full of questions, and Padres interim manager Pat Murphy had the answers:

PSYCH!

Uh oh, guys, the teams are on to us. It would appear that we can add "triple-check to make sure no one's trolling you" to the rumor-tracking process.

Chris Landers/MLB.com

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