One thing that no one in baseball could have predicted at the beginning of this past offseason was that Matt Kemp would be back on the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers acquired Kemp from the Atlanta Braves for salary purposes in order to get below the luxury tax threshold. And while Los Angeles attempted to trade him, they were simply a lack of interest for an aging outfielder.
So Kemp, however improbable, began Spring Training with the Dodgers, battling for the starting job in left field. By all accounts, Kemp has been a model teammate in his second go-around with the franchise that originally drafted him.
Kemp explained how he’s at ease and enjoying his time with a team that operates as a cohesive unit and knows they are in position to win games on a nightly basis, via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“Feeling like you’re going to win every game is fun. It stinks when you go to the park, your team is playing bad, everybody has that look on their face where you hope you’re going to win. Here, it’s like,’We’re going to win a game today. We’re going to get it done, or try to.’
“There’s something around here that rubs off on you. On the outside looking in, it looked like they were having fun. This is like one, big, happy family.”
Kemp having fun is showing on the field as through his first five Cactus League games he is 4-for-13 (.308 batting average) with two home runs and five RBIs.
Many believed Kemp would be a liability on defense because of the decline he’s shown in recent seasons, but so far he has been serviceable in left field. That’s in large part due to the weight he lost during the offseason, and the Dodgers’ advance analytics and defensive positioning.
While it is still possible that Kemp is traded before Opening Day, it is looking more and more likely that he will remain with the Dodgers for at least a portion of the 2018 season. And with that, could very well be the team’s starting left fielder and be tasked with protecting Cody Bellinger in batting order.
