The last couple years since the Dodgers-Red Sox block buster waiver trade, the Dodgers have been trying to clean up their messy outfield. Especially over the last year or so names like Kemp, Either, and Crawford have been names on the trade block. The reason why it was taking so long to trade one of these guys was because of the size of their contracts. But despite the money roadblock there was no doubt that a trade needed to happen. The only remaining question was who to trade. The trade partner had to be willing to take a chunk of the player’s salary and give something valuable back in return.
On Thursday December 11 Matt Kemp was chosen as the outfielder to be traded. Friedman along with his GM and front office decided to send Kemp along with Tim Federowicz to the Padres for Yasmani Grandal, Joe Wieland and top prospect in a 20-year old Zack Eflin. In addition the Dodgers will send $32 million to the Padres in order to help them pay for the remaining $107 million of Kemp’s contract.
Considering what the Dodgers got back in the trade, this was not a good move. Yasmani is going to be a good piece to share the catcher role with AJ Ellis. Grandal has a bat that has a lot of potential power, but behind the plate he is not very valuable as he led the league in passed balls (12) last year along with a putting up a caught steeling percentage of %13, which was well below the league average. By the way he only played 76 games behind the plate in 2014, so its not like those numbers were put up in a full season. Joe Wieland was 35-22 with a 3.27 ERA, 1.154 WHIP, and 8.4 K/9 along with being the pre-2012 74th ranked prospect. Zack Eflin at 20 years old still has some work to do. So these are some descent pieces, but they are not players who could help the Dodgers win now.
The front office was focused way too much on dumping the contract and adding another catcher. First of all Matt Kemp may have a big contract and has been injury prone the last few years, but 2014 was proof that the 2011 Kemp is back as he batted .287 with 25 homers, 89 RBI’s, 38 doubles, and had 274 total bases. 2015 could be a season where he bats .290 with 22+ homers, 100+ RBI’s, and 35+ doubles in 150 games as he is back to 100%. Secondly, catcher wise, the blue crew could have done better. There are a variety of good back up catchers out there on the free agent market such as, Nick Hundley, Jose Molina, and Geovany Soto, who are all good behind the plate and have a descent bat. The career caught steeling percentage of the three combined is 30%. Yes the three of them are on the older side, but within the fluster of trades that have been completed, the Dodgers gathered a couple of catching prospects. So Friedman could have been a little more patient and done a little more research.
