Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Like I said last night, Matt Kemp is still a Dodger, approximately 41 years after the news of his trade to San Diego broke. Also like I said last night, there’s not a ton of reason to panic about this yet, because his physical only actually happened on Tuesday. It’s now Thursday. That’s not a huge gap in time, and it’s really more about our perception of when this is all happening — remember, the teams announced nothing last week, this is all from reporters with sources — than anything. Had no one leaked this out, we wouldn’t even know the process was happening. Still, the deal reportedly needs to be finished off no later than today, and at least one national reporter is hopeful that it will:
The #Padres hope to announce Kemp deal tomorrow and Myers trade later in day — Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) December 17, 2014
…and so we wait. We wait, and we hold off on publishing interesting non-Kemp content, because it’s clear this is all anyone is going to talk about until it’s over.
Now, it’s possible that this is some kind of ploy by the Padres:
SD in perfect position to squeeze LAD for more money in Kemp deal: Kemp's medicals ugly, LAD has cash and needs Kemp deal more than SD does.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) December 18, 2014
…but I doubt Logan White is unaware of Kemp’s health, and trying to pull something shady isn’t exactly the way for new GM A.J. Preller to build a reputation.
My guess is that at some point today, we’ll see a press release confirming the deal as is, and we can move forward. I suppose there’s a small chance that the deal that comes out is slightly changed in one way or another from what we already knew, and a close to zero chance that the thing gets called off entirely. The more I’ve thought about this, the more I think it’s a good move for the organization. Even if you didn’t agree, know that the deal falling apart right now is not the same thing as it never having happened in the first place. This has to get done. It has to get done today. For all of our sakes.
