Los Angeles Dodgers: What must happen for a J.T. Realmuto trade
By Jason Reed
2. The Los Angeles Dodgers need to trade Matt Kemp
When Matt Kemp was acquired by the Los Angeles Dodgers last offseason everyone was shocked. The Dodgers traded Kemp to the San Diego Padres just a few years earlier and even ate some of his contract to ensure that his massive deal would not tie up the team in the future.
In the deal, the Dodgers sent Adrian Gonzalez, Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir and Charlie Culberson. While the Dodgers had to take on two years of Kemp, the team offset more money right away to get under the luxury tax threshold.
Kemp was then viewed as a pawn that would eventually get moved to open up free agency money last winter. That never happened, Kemp came out and had a red-hot summer and now here we are. Kemp has one year left on his deal and is in a state of limbo.
Personally, I love Matt Kemp and it would be sad to see him go for the second time. However, his contract is now much easier to trade than it was last season and freeing up his salary could open many doors for the Dodgers.
J.T. Realmuto is still under arbitration and won’t be paid much, to begin with. The Dodgers can afford to have Kemp and Realmuto on the same team.
However, trading Kemp opens up our third and final thing that must happen for the Dodgers to trade for J.T. Realmuto.