While the Los Angeles Dodgers may have intended to move Matt Kemp along after acquiring him in a salary-motivated offseason trade with the Atlanta Braves, they also may shudder to think where they would be without the veteran outfielder.
Kemp played at an MVP-caliber level through the first half of the season and it earned him a selection to the All-Star Game for the first time since 2012, when he was also with the Dodgers. But Kemp has since been on a slide.
He entered play Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics with just one hit in his last
35 at-bats. Kemp struck out in his first at-bat of the series opener, walked in the third inning and fouled out in the fifth.
Mired in a 1-for-37 stretch at that point, Kemp shook it off to flare an RBI single into right field in the seventh inning.
While he’s still in a downturn, Kemp is hardly panicking as he believes it’s part of a long season, per Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times:
“That’s life, man,” Matt Kemp said. “It’s baseball. It can’t be good the whole year. There’s got to be a grinding time, and I’m in my grinding time right now. As long we win, I’m good. But at some point, I think I’ll get another hit.”
Even with the dip in production, Kemp is hitting .289/.338/.487 with 19 doubles, 17 home runs, 65 RBI and a 121 OPS+. His batting average was at or slightly above .300 for much of the season.
Moreover, he continues to be one of the Dodgers’ most productive hitters with runners in scoring position, batting .376 with a 1.045 on-base plus slugging percentage and 48 RBI in 102 such plate appearances.
