Matt Kemp trade remains a transaction waiting for a resolution
By mid-day Thursday, Matt Kemp had deteriorated from a man hardy enough to carry a major league baseball team for months to one who would require a Rascal to navigate the aisles of a 99-cent store on his lunch break.
An unfortunate turn for Kemp, for sure, as he is but 30 years old and only months removed from a second half in which he batted .309, hit 17 home runs and generally earned his keep with the Los Angeles Dodgers again.
This is relevant, of course, because the Dodgers a week ago agreed to trade Kemp to the San Diego Padres. In return, the Dodgers would receive catcher Yasmani Grandal and two young pitchers. They also would cover $32 million of the $107 million remaining on Kemp’s contract, which runs through 2019. In the end, the Padres would be on the hook for $75 million over five years, or $15 million annually, and the Dodgers would have thinned their outfield crowd.
The ever-resourceful new Dodgers management would then take one of those young pitchers, Zach Eflin, pair him with another young pitcher, and trade them to Philadelphia for veteran shortstop Jimmy Rollins.
All that stood between the Dodgers, Padres (and Phillies) and a clean transaction was a somewhat clean physical exam of Kemp, who has experienced a rash of mid-career injuries (shoulder and ankle being the latest) but appeared fit for most of 2014.
Kemp’s physical was scheduled for Tuesday. Tuesday passed. Wednesday passed. And on Thursday, when folks were beginning to wonder if there’d been a snag, USA Today reported the Padres discovered Kemp has “severe” arthritis in not one hip but two.
Well, then, the possibilities:
Kemp has “severe” arthritis in both hips and should probably have that looked into. Meantime, he might start pricing walkers and tennis balls. And the Dodgers might think about installing a ramp from the on-deck circle to the plate.
Kemp has just enough arthritis in both hips that the Padres will need the Dodgers to throw in a few more million, or take one fewer pitcher in exchange for the guy with the deteriorating hips.
Kemp’s hips are sore from nobody wants to know what, and the Padres will need the Dodgers to throw in a few more million, or take one fewer pitcher in exchange for the guy who is already wearing a Padres jersey in his Twitter picture.
Kemp’s no different than anyone who runs around a lot and maybe everybody should just get on with this.
Meantime, the clock was ticking on the 72-hour window baseball grants for assessing the medicals of trade candidates. The Padres had until Thursday evening, which promised an eventful Thursday afternoon, particularly as Kemp’s physical condition seemed to be worsening by the hour.
Yeah, for a few hours anyway, it got awkward. Did the Dodgers really try to foist a damaged outfielder on the Padres? No? So, did the Padres really put the Dodgers in the worst possible position and then try to extract a better deal? No? Did Kemp’s hips just give out overnight? No?
Then what?
If Padres GM A.J. Preller were going to play the Dodgers and potentially kill the deal, he certainly wouldn’t have traded for catcher Ryan Hanigan (which he did on Wednesday), who was needed in the absence of Grandal. Besides, did he really want to be that guy in his first major trade?
Dodgers GM (president of baseball operations, technically) Andrew Friedman would not go through the drama of trading Kemp if there were a chance Kemp would boomerang on him. Imagine a traded-and-untraded Kemp back in the Dodgers’ clubhouse come February, or a scenario in which Friedman is trying to trade a $107 million outfielder who’d already failed one physical.
And what about Rollins? A week ago he agreed to waive his no-trade rights to leave the rebuilding Philadelphia Phillies for Los Angeles. So, if the Kemp trade developed its own case of osteoarthritis, the Dodgers and Phillies would have to rework the details of that trade or, less likely, abandon it altogether. Because, you know, whether Kemp would be a Padre or not, the Dodgers still need a shortstop.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports: