November 18th, 2018 at 8:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka If baseball’s annual off-season has taught us anything, it has taught us to expect the unexpected. I mean, who actually thought that outfielder Matt Kemp would not only be reacquired by the Dodgers just prior to spring training 2018, but would actually still be on the team come Opening Day a little over a month later?
It was no secret that the Dodgers acquired the then 33-year-old / 12-year MLB veteran (of which nine had been with the Dodgers) from the Atlanta Braves purely as a salary dumb of the lofty contracts of Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, and Brandon McCarthy, even though Kemp himself still had two years and $43 million remaining on his own lofty eight-year / $160 million contract.
Within minutes of re-acquiring the extremely popular former Dodger, it was widely reported that the Dodgers would immediately flip Kemp due to the fact that they already had a plethora of outfielders that included guys named Yasiel Puig, Joc Pederson, Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Kiké Hernandez, Alex Verdugo, Andrew Toles, and Tim Locastro.
Not only was Kemp on the Dodgers 2018 Opening Day roster, he ended up appearing in 146 of the Dodgers’ 163 regular seasons games, while posting an excellent slash-line of .290 / .338 / .481 for an OPS of .818. To put this into perspective, only Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner had a better batting average than did Matt Kemp from among the 10 Dodger players that appeared in 100 or more games during the 2018 regular season.
Who knew?
Who knew that the guy that nearly every Dodger fan and beat writer thought wouldn’t even be around on Opening Day 2018 would end up being the team’s second best hitter 163 games later?
Kemp proved naysayers wrong throughout the entire 2018 regular season, during which he hit .290 with 21 home runs and 85 RBI. (Photo credit – Mark J. Terrill)
While there is no disputing that the now 34-year-old Midwest City, Oklahoma native and Dodgers 2003 sixth-round draft pick out of Midwest City High School is in the twilight of his career, his veteran presence in the Dodgers clubhouse had – and continues to have – a huge impact on a very young Dodgers team, perhaps none more so than on 23-year-old Dodgers outfielder / first baseman Cody Bellinger.
“Kemp’s been awesome,” Bellinger told L.A. Times’ Dylan Hernandez shortly after the 2018 All-Star break. “He’s been through it all. He’s been through success, he’s been through some failure. He’s been a vocal guy, kind of keeping me on my toes. Kind of like Andre [Ethier] a little bit. A lot of smack talking, but all positivity, you know?”
The advice that Kemp gave to the young 2017 National League Rookie of the Year included a mechanical change of having him bend his knees a little more at the plate so that he would be in a better hitting position.
“I made small mechanical adjustments to allow me to not miss those pitches so I don’t get into bad hitter’s counts quickly,” Bellinger said.
Why this minor adjustment?
“That’s where all the pop comes from, your legs,” Kemp said. “Just imagine him using his legs with as much pop as he has, he’s going to have even more.”
More pop indeed.
Bellinger finished the 2018 regular season with 25 home runs, tied for second most on the team with fellow outfielder Joc Pederson behind only Dodgers first baseman Max Muncy‘s 35 and four ahead of (wait for it…) Matt Kemp’s 21.
Although Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, now former Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts received (and continue to receive) a great deal of criticism over their (near) exclusive use of analytics in hitter-versus-pitcher match-ups, not doing so with Matt Kemp was a no-brainer.
Over his now 14-year MLB career, Kemp has a .314 batting average with 97 doubles, nine triples, and 83 home runs against left-handed pitching. However, even though analytics would suggest that the right-handed hitting Kemp would have less success against right-handed pitching, he has a career .276 batting average with 263 doubles, 30 triples, and 197 home runs against righties, analytics be damned.
Knowing this, F & Z (and R) allowed the veteran outfielder to play in 13 of the Dodgers combined 16 postseason games, during which he went 2-for-11 against left-handers (.182) and 2-for-12 against right-handers (.167). And while these numbers are anything but overwhelming, Kemp’s combined 4-for-23 (.174) was actually the ninth-best batting average on the team during a very anemic offensive postseason for the (now) two-time World Series runners-up.
When Kemp was called upon to pinch-hit for Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler in the bottom of the seventh inning of Game-3 of the 2018 World Series, no one had any idea that the game would go 18 innings. Who knows what might have happened had the popular Dodgers outfielder had more than just this one at-bat in which he grounded out to short. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)
So what can Dodger fans expect to see from Matt Kemp in his 10th and what figures to be final season in a Dodger uniform in 2019? Although it is pure speculation at this point, chances are exceptionally good that we will probably see much the same both offensively and defensively that we saw in 2018 which, when you think about it, isn’t a bad thing at all.
Play Ball!
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It was surprising and great to see what a terrific season Kemp had in 2018 for the Dodgers. There’s no doubt he helped them a lot.
Interesting that Kemp is credited for change in Bellinger’s mechanics — one would think that Dodgers hitting coaches should have picked up on that back in ST. I believe Dodgers would still like to trade Kemp even if it means picking up 50% or more of his remaining contract. Acquiring a RH hitter who crushes LH pitching IMO is a huge need to 2019, a guy like Nick Castellanos of the Tigers who could be moved to LF. Kemp to an AL team in need of a DH like the Twins, or to the Mariners who lost Cruz to free agency.
Is it that unusual for a veteran player to make the suggestion that corrects a problem? It’s also possible that coaches have suggested it but he wasn’t comfortable with it. Could be Kemp just caught him when he was ready to try anything.
Interesting that he compared Kemp to Either. I think both those guys have futures as batting coaches if they choose. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dre coaching at Arizona State. Less time away from home.
No, not that unusual for a veteran to offer suggestions to younger players — very good point.
Too bad the NL doesn’t have the designated hitter. (No, not really.) BUT… the DH does make sense for someone like Kemp. At another Dodger fansite that will go unnamed, there is a proposal to make a huge deal with the Mariners, with Kemp a part of the package. The proposal would throw a lot of prospects at the M’s to help them swallow Kemp’s salary.
Anyway, the second half of last season and the postseason showed that Kemp will be a part-time player.