Los Angeles Dodgers: What a perfect offseason would look like
By Jason Reed
2. The Dodgers offload Matt Kemp’s contract in a trade with Joc Pederson
Matt Kemp has one of the biggest salaries on the Los Angeles Dodgers and accounts for just under nine percent of the total $206 million the team wants to stay under. Kemp has one more year on his contract and has an $18 million cap hit.
The Dodgers acquired Kemp last offseason with the intent to flip him to another team, likely still paying some of the salary in order to get comfortably under the luxury tax.
That obviously did not happen but Kemp was a huge reason why the Dodgers came out of a slow start with a scorching month of May that led to him being an all-star. Heck, at the break, Kemp was even a legitimate MVP candidate.
However, that typically happens for Kemp, who eventually slowed down outside of a few huge hits off of Archie Bradley late in the season. His defense kept him out of most of the action in the postseason.
After that good offensive start and only having one more year on his contract, the Dodgers can make a much more convincing case in why an American League team would want Kemp as their designated hitter. A team that is looking to go for broke next season.
That team could be the Seattle Mariners, who might be in the market for a DH if the team does not want a multi-year commitment to Nelson Cruz. The Dodgers could package Kemp with Joc Pederson, who would give the team a much-needed power-hitting left-handed bat, for a player to be named later and I would not mind.
This frees up much-needed salary cap space. Plus, Alex Verdugo looks to replace Pederson as the Dodgers’ left-handed hitting outfielder (and potentially the everyday center fielder). We are assuming Pederson’s arbitration salary is the same as it was last season: $2.6 million.