Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp doesn’t necessarily want to be traded, but he would welcome a deal that would allow him to man center field on an everyday basis with a new team, agent Dave Stewart told Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports yesterday. Rosenthal notes, however, that GM Ned Colletti is a bit hesitant to part with Kemp’s right-handed bat, as that would leave the team with just one surefire right-handed power threat in the everyday lineup in 2015: Yasiel Puig. (Hanley Ramirez, of course, is a free agent at season’s end.) Another major roadblock is the roughly $107MM remaining on Kemp’s contract through the 2019 season.
Here’s more on the Dodgers and the rest of the NL West…
- Mark Saxon of ESPN Los Angeles now debunks one of his own reports, tweeting that he’s been told the Dodgers are not interested in Jonathan Papelbon. Yesterday, a baseball source told Saxon he expected the club to pursue the Philadelphia closer.
- Rockies owner Dick Monfort appeared on 850 KOA-AM radio with Dave Logan and Susie Wargin, and MLB.com’s Thomas Harding provides some highlights from the discussion. Most notably, after Monfort defended GM Dan O’Dowd by saying he judged O’Dowd’s success on more than just the club’s win-loss record, he was asked who should take the blame for the record: “You would have to say it’s [Rockies senior vice president of Major League operations and assistant GM] Bill Geivett,” said Monfort. “He’s responsible for the Major League team. Now, the talent that gets into the Major League team, [that] is the responsibility of scouting and development.” Monfort declined to comment when asked if all of the club’s decision-makers would return next season, but he did say he “stand[s] by the job that everybody does.”
- The San Diego Union-Tribune’s staff runs down the list of each Padres GM candidate and explains the reasons that they have a chance at the job as well as the reason that each could lose out to another candidate. Since the publishing of that article, four candidates have already been eliminated, and the finalists now are Red Sox AGM Mike Hazen, Rangers AGM A.J. Preller, Yankees AGM Billy Eppler and MLB senior vice president of baseball operations Kim Ng.
- Earlier today, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported that Kevin Towers could join the Padres front office as a senior advisor if he his dismissed from his post with the D’Backs. Padres CEO Mike Dee now tells Rosenthal (Twitter links): “Any new hires in the front office will be up to the new GM. Kevin Towers is not a candidate for that position. Thus, any speculation about Kevin rejoining the Padres is just that, speculation.”
So I have a feeling Amaro is not going to be able to move any players. He says he’s willing to eat cash but he’s probably telling teams, “hey why won’t you trade your top 3 specs for Papelbon, I said I’d eat money?”
What’s funny is, I can 100% see him doing this. I can also however see him working as a Walmart greeter in 6 months.
Seriously, if the salaries of these players weren’t bad enough, nearly every single one of them has limited no-trade clauses(Ruiz, Papelbon, Howard, Lee, Hamels, Burnett, Byrd) then you have Rollins and Utley who have 10-5 rights and you get the mess that is this team.
How many of these guys really want to relocate to Seattle or Toronto?
Well he can move Byrd to Seattle but Seattle doesn’t want to pick up his option but I’m sure there’s other teams out there that need a RF.
That and Byrd can block a trade to Seattle… I’m not sure if he would (I’d be searching for the next plane out of Philadelphia too)… that and considering the weak offensive trade market, Seattle may have more competition for Byrd than normal.
True but Byrd was willing to waive it, with Seattle picking up his option. I’m sure the deal would’ve been done by now if that was the case.
Is Safeco still death for right handed hitters or has that changed over the years with the fences being moved in?
The Philadelphia 76ers have a better farm system then the phillies right now..Lets look at the guys the phillies have moved.-J Donaldson,N singleton, M bourne and K Drabek..They need to make moves.. The Phils had great 6 year run..What else do you want..Amaro is shaking and baking..so what
News to me that Donaldson came from Phillies…Also who is N Singleton?
For real, when did they have Donaldson?
I forget what date it was but there was a game Houston played in which Cosart, Singelton, Zeid, and Santana all played. Oh and during that game, Hunter Pence was playing for San Francisco while Amaro was smug.
That trade was crazy bad. I think the original poster was referring to Moss.
Never had Josh Donaldson. We had Jason Donald, a utility man that was in the package that the Phillies sent to Cleveland to get Cliff.
Josh Donaldson was traded by the Cubs for Rich Harden in 2008.
That’s a weird list of players to criticize the Phils for trading. Bourne hasn’t been a Philly since 2007. Donaldson was never a Philly. Drabek is a washout. No mention of Anthony Gose or Michael Taylor or D’Arnaud? No mention of Cosart or Villar?
Until Seattle does somthing to address their need in the OF, talks of Kemp going to Seattle will continue. Make sense for both teams but the deciding factor will be how much money will LA eat.
I doubt they take on more than $10-15M… they aren’t hell-bent to move Kemp… but then again, of the Dodgers outfielders (minus Puig), I think Kemp will be the easiest to move, as they all have absurd contracts.
The Dodgers should wait till after season to trade one of there out fielders.
If I understand correctly, the shoulder injury sapped Kemp’s power, while the ankle injury took away the mobility to play center? Dodgers best bet is to stay put and hope he stays healthy and regains form in one of those two areas.
Well when his arm was in a sling and his foot in a boot, sure. Whether he can recover both to what they were is still unknown. He is swinging the bat well.
What would be a fair deal to get Kemp to Seattle.
Depends on how much LA is willing to eat
id wonder what a 1/3 of kemp’s salary off would yield from Seattle
Show on MLB Network today was talking about LA having to pay $80 million of what is remaining on Kemp’s contract to move him. They were saying he is worth about $7 million per year on a 3 year deal. I found that interesting for a guy many were calling the one of the best in the game just a few years ago.
Not worth it for LA. Let him rot over paying 100 mil for minor league scraps and roster space. Might as well eat most of Crawford or Ethier’s deals and let kemp be average in LF(below average defensively). As a Dodger fan it amazes me that this is the same Kemp that won two gold gloves, he might have been overrated at his peak defensively but he just looks lost now. No ones scouts think they can fix Matt Kemp? He’s still on the right side of thirty. Its crazy to see someone lose it so young so fast.
You’re never going to see the MVP-caliber Kemp again. That guy is gone. Injuries destroyed him. But he would make a very good DH for an AL team if the Dodgers would pay off half that contract and Kemp would face reality and realize he’s not an effective defender anymore and never will be. He should DH and focus on his hitting.
You are never going to see this either.
Matt Kemp + $50 Million for BJ Upton
Oh come on. Next year all this Kemp bashing will be silly memories.
Lets not focus on his contract, just prospects
That’s his point. If Seattle took over his contract then pretty much no prospects, whereas if they paid for a good chunk of it then maybe someone like Taylor considering Hanley Ramirez is set to become a free agent.
Ok thanks
But then again, they have Corey Seager coming up at SS in their ranks pretty quick so maybe some cost controlled relievers.
Maybe a couple lower to mid level prospects and a chunk of his salary. Not too many teams are willing to take on that money for the next few years.
Not a chance.
His salary is too high for anyone to absorb other than you guys and the Yankees. They will not net anything unless they give some salary relief.
That was not my point. There’s no chance because it doesn’t make the Dodgers a better team.
Well you didn’t really make a point. So they are going to want someone major league ready? I’m sure they wouldn’t mind some salary relief as well.
Yes, I did make a point, which is that the Dodgers are not going to make any move that does not improve the team, and trading Kemp for some midlevel prospect(s) completely fails to do that, obviously. I don’t know where you get the idea that the Dodgers are looking for salary relief. The current ownership has never made a move for that purpose, and it makes no sense to argue that they should change their approach now.
How about Bartolo Colon, Daniel Murphy, Rafael Montero, and Ruben Tejada for Matt Kemp and Dee Gordon?
No way don’t even bring Dee in any trade.
Funny how a year ago the talk was about trading Gordon for a bag of bats. Fortunately the Dodgers did not take that advice.
It’s was All on Dee to show the Dodgers he could play with the big Dogs and he did just that.
Right, no one would touch Dee with a ten foot pole last year. Thankful the Dodgers make it a habit of not selling low.
Yup, and thankfully they don’t take the advice of armchair GMs.
Pretty sure that the Mets pass on this trade. It wouldn’t make them much better (if at all; Murphy and Gordon pretty much cancel each other out, plus it creates an even bigger hole at SS), and they’d have to add Kemp’s enormous salary. The Wilpons would never allow it, and I’m sure Sandy wouldn’t want to do it, anyway.
When was the last time the Phillies ate any part of a contract? Jim Thome… 2005. They got Gio Gonzalez as a PTBNL too… smh. Oh and remember.. they gave up MORE in trades just to have other teams pay part of salaries even though they were below the Lux.
Kemp’s stats dropped of like Sizemore’s did some years back. I would still get him if he is willing to play 1st base on occasion, cause he wont hold up full time in the outfield anymore. A team like Kansas City should go after him.