No sooner did Justin Upton get done talking about possible changes on the Diamondbacks as the trading deadline approaches when a report surfaced Friday the team may consider trading the right fielder if the club falls out of contention.

Ken Rosenthal and John Paul Morosi of Fox Sports, citing unnamed major league sources, said it could happen if the Diamondbacks continue on hard times. They had lost a season-high six straight entering Friday night's game at Chase Field against the Dodgers.

The report suggested Upton would make for an attractive prize for contenders and non-contenders alike because of his power potential and because he is signed at affordable salaries through 2015.

Arizona could easily be a buyer at the trade deadline, however, given that the Diamondbacks aren't terribly far behind the Dodgers or the Giants. If they get back on a roll and remain in contention for a division title or a Wild Card berth, they could active pursue help at third base and may be enticed to add an arm to their pitching staff.

Before Friday's game, Upton talked about what may or may not happen as it relates to the Diamondbacks and their General Manager, Kevin Towers, who openly shopped the slugger upon his arrival to the front office in 2010.

"Kevin Towers is a very smart GM," Upton said. "He knows a lot about the market, he know what he has in this team before he put it together and he's confident in his guys, confident in the decisions he made in the offseason. He's expressed that."

So is Upton expecting Towers to pull the trigger on a deal?

"I haven't heard anything," he said. "I don't know if I'm going to hear anything closer to the deadline. But he's confident in this bunch so we'll see what happens.

"I'm not anticipating anything big. That being said, Kevin's also been known to be a guy who makes moves. He's definitely confident in us, but if he feels he can make this team better in some sort of way, he'll make a move to do it."

Upton, who entered Friday's game hitting .263 with seven home runs, 34 RBIs and a .376 slugging percentage, said the Diamondbacks just need to play their way out of their funk.

"Teams go through good stretches and bad stretches," he said, "but at any given time, a team can explode and win a bunch of ballgames or implode and lose a bunch of ball games. It's just a matter of how your season falls.

"Right now, we're just not hot. We haven't pitched well, we haven't put up any runs. That happens to teams. The imploding or exploding comes from the character of your team and I think the character of our team is a very strong-minded group and I don't think we would allow ourselves to fall into too deep of a rut.

"The guys in this clubhouse and the way we feel about the game and the way we play it every night, I think it's just matter of time before we come out of it and start getting ourselves in position to win ballgames."