Why Matt Kemp being a Padre just feels right
PEORIA, Ariz. – When he’s right in heart and mind, when his chest and shoulders are swollen with muscle, when he stands in the clubhouse and laughs at the little stuff, when the ball is coming off the bat with a declaration of authority, when he trusts in his superiors, then watch Matt Kemp go.
Watch him hit. Watch him lead. Watch him corner a game again, the way he used to.
That might seem a lot of requirements, but it’s not really, just the usual human frailties we tend not to tolerate in our ballplayers, especially the superstars among them. Kemp was not a bad guy in Los Angeles. He was not disruptive in an impactful way. He just, at times, wasn’t part of the solution either, and Dodgers management simply – and perhaps reasonably – had hoped otherwise. The team did win 94 games last season, 17 of those in September, when Kemp batted .322 with nine home runs, seven doubles and 25 RBI. Nothing heals a clubhouse like nine home runs in a month, so let’s not stray too far in that direction.
He’s a San Diego Padre now, he and 32 million of the Dodgers’ dollars, and Kemp has told folks here he’s never had more fun playing the game. It’s March and the games aren’t really games, but his sentiment isn’t meaningless either, and probably speaks to the reason Andrew Friedman moved so quickly to offload him, in division, along with a wheelbarrow of cash. Maybe he wasn’t ever going to have fun playing the game in L.A. again, as a Dodger, for Don Mattingly, surrounded by those guys, and maybe that was significant to the new men who run things.
[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Baseball: Sign up and join a league today!]
Regardless, Kemp is about a week from returning to Dodger Stadium as a Padre, which is sure to create a stir, and is a central figure in what looks like a return to relevance for the sleepy franchise by the sea – him and Justin Upton and Wil Myers and James Shields and a whole load of guys who caught A.J. Preller’s eye. It’s a different approach – power hitters in a ballpark that plays big, defensive questions in, yes, a ballpark that plays big, and a right-handed-leaning lineup when there are just so many Kershaws and Bumgarners in the world – but the old strategy hadn’t produced an NL West winner in nearly a decade. It’s possible it was time to get better players and worry about the ballpark some other time.
Kemp walked in Monday morning carrying a camouflage backpack, though everyone could see it anyway. He’s had a good spring, batting .378 and on Sunday homering off the top of the batter’s eye here. Padres management and coaches have loved his temperament. More, they’ve loved the life in his body, which is still just 30 but has had its run-ins with walls and catchers and collisions of an arthritic nature. Sometimes, it’s not the age but the miles, and sometimes it’s not the miles but the ruts in the miles. And sometimes when you don’t absolutely love what you’re doing or whom you’re doing it for, everything’s harder and slower and generally uphill.
“I don’t think I’m much different,” he said. “I’m just being myself here, having fun and playing baseball. Not too much different. Just a different uniform. Bud [Black, the manager] makes it easy. He’s a great communicator. Lets you know what you’re going to be doing.”
[Get last-minute Fantasy Baseball advice on the Grandstanding podcast. ]
Nobody ever doesn’t know what they’re doing in March, of course, but he’d made his point. What’s important (to Kemp) is Kemp is not dealing with notions of changing positions, overloaded outfields or the force that is Yasiel Puig. He’s just him again, or can be if he wants, now that he is healthy and wholly appreciated.
They have to get things right in San Diego, where they’ve too regularly gone through owners and presidents and general managers. Six of the nine players in the lineup Monday afternoon will have come from other organizations since the fall, and Kemp has helped in the transition. Among other things, he captained his three-man team to the finals of the all-Padres three-point shooting tournament, where he (along with Brandon Morrow and Matt Wisler) lost to – ready? – a front-office team that included Preller and assistant Josh Stein.
“Those guys can shoot, man,” Kemp said.
Come Saturday night, the Padres will pile into a couple of buses headed to Los Angeles, and then it won’t matter how many barbecues they shared or laughs they had or threes they made. This will work or it won’t, the Padres will play well or not, and then win or not. It looks good. It seems healthy. But, their chances are better because Matt Kemp, this year, is along for the ride.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
