The Dodgers are hiring former big leaguer Matt Kemp in an advisory role, per reports from Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
Kemp, 39, had a 15-year career in the big leagues, spending much of that time with the Dodgers. He was drafted by them in 2003 and made it to the majors as a Dodger in 2006. He was with them through 2014 before suiting up for the Padres and Braves, returning to the Dodgers and then going to the Reds and Rockies, making his last appearance with Colorado in 2020.
Over those years, he got into 1,750 major league games, logging 1,808 hits, including 338 doubles, 37 triples and 287 home runs. He scored 950 runs, drove in 1,031 and stole 184 bases. He slashed .284/.337/.484 in that time for a wRC+ of 120.
It’s unclear exactly what role the Dodgers have in mind for Kemp, but they seem to have decided on having more former players in the organization. This offseason, they have added Nelson Cruz, Chris Archer and Tyson Ross as advisors or special assistants.
It’s the Dodgers’ world, and we’re all just living in it.
Whine with that cheese?
I’ll take some!
I actually prefer a good metworst and a dill pickle with my cheese
Dodgers League Baseball. DLB
All baseball is these days.
Rest of MLB doesn’t exist. SMH
Should have won an MVP
Braun’s cheating is bad enough, but didn’t he blame the specimen collector?
Yes, he did.
He absolutely should have won the MVP over Braun
This ought to be interesting.
Probably not very. The Dodgers employ a bunch of former players as “special assistants“ in the FO. Most of them make a few pre or postgame broadcast appearances and that’s about all we see or hear from them. Kemp is getting a bobble head this season so that’s likely to be about as interesting as it gets.
Good. Baseball needs to get more diverse
That’s the largest piece of bait I’ve ever seen, Liberalsteve
Please! Kemp was a good ball player and a good Dodger. Great to have him back.
How much $$ deferred?
How much originality in your tiny brain?
Enough to buy bots that can troll better than that.
Kemp was a bad and lazy teammate when with the Padres. To me, the pairing of Kemp and “the Dodger Way” seems incongruent.
The speed of a 21 year old Billy Hamilton combined with the defense of a 24 year old Kevin Kiermaier combined with the power of a 26 year old Albert Pujols
And the hustle of a 29 year old Peter Rose
People change. Archer and Cruz are both smart and good guys. I don’t know much about Ross. I think the Dodgers know what they’re doing.
Lazy? reported
He really didn’t want to be in San Diego. I’ll never forget seeing him tour the padres clubhouse with Bud Black when the trade became official. Kemp looked like it was the last place he wanted to be. It’s on YouTube so I’m sure you can find it if you want to see. I’m willing to bet that had a lot to do with it. On top of that he was 30. And for me, the gap between 30-40 feels twice as large as the gap between 10-30 when it comes to maturity
Kemp was never lazy. Rihanna just tired him out. Vodka and water, and a lemon.
If joe mauer got into the Hall of Fame which is laughable then it will be a outrage if they really do actually end up rejecting Albert and Ichiro and Trout (word around the campfire)
shhh
One of my favorite players ever. I am really surprised that his career WAR is as low as it is. He had a couple monster seasons and played a long time
He wasn’t good defensively. During its heyday, Fangraphs constantly ripped on his defense. He’d probably be a very good DH like JD Martinez if he had started playing a decade later.
He won a GG, he was good defensively and stealing bases until his knee issues and then both deteriorated
Bernie Williams is one of my all-time faves. He won multiple gold gloves and stole bases too. He also wasn’t a good fielder with a below average arm. Both Bernie and Kemp were not very good at reading balls off the bat and got poor jumps even though they were very good on routine plays.
He wasn’t that good defensively AFTER he crashed into the wall in Coors and messed up his hip. Prior to that injury, he was a gold glove caliper outfielder along with Andre Ethier.
That trade was even worse than we remember it being.
I looked up the numbers because I had forgotten.
Woof. 1.0 WAR in 2015, and -0.6 WAR in 2016.
For awhile, we could thank Kemp for the cycle. Then Wil Myers and Jake Cronenworth did it too.
Now we can just thank the Braves for Hector Olivera. Saved the Padres a ton of money in paying Kemp to go away.
Cute.
I honestly thought Kemp would had been good for at least 2.0 to 2.5 WAR in 2015.
i.e. I thought I remembered him being “meh” with the Pads, not flat out bad. I was mistaken. Happy?
Guess who left their brain in San Francisco.
Padres still had to pay Olivera $28.5m and the trade also cost them Grandal and Eflin.
First day of class: Mr. Kemp written on the white board and a picture of Rihanna in her twenties up on the screen.
He does a Magic Mike dance for potential new recruits.
He’s the 123rd best CF in MLB history. Better than HOF legends like Willard Brown, Ned Hanlon & Pete Hill.
Career wRC+
Matt Kemp: 120
Willard Brown: 177
Ned Hanlon: 104
Pete Hill: 141
Probably doesn’t deserve to be in the HOF, given he wasn’t as good as 2 of the 3 of these guys. He’ll always be less than these legends.
Wow. Chris Archer is not playing.
Kemp is going to teach Dodger Players how to display a menacing scowl.
Kemp was the best!
Kemp signed my baseball
Kemp not only should have an MVP on his resume, but he’s connected to the trades that brought in Mookie Betts, Trea Tuner and Max Scherzer in. Welcome back!!
Dodgers will inevitably trade him to another FO mid-season for another FO contract.