The Hot Stove received a bit of a jolt on Saturday afternoon when the Braves sent Matt Kemp to the Dodgers in exchange for Brandon McCarthy, Scott Kazmir, Charlie Culberson, Adrian Gonzalez, and cash considerations. If this trade had gone down in 2012, it would’ve caused a massive earthquake from the reaction. Instead, we’re heading into 2018 and at first glance it’s a head-scratcher.
Both the Dodgers and Braves benefited from their salary dumps
Sunday’s Say Hey Baseball looks at a rare win-win trade that saw both the Braves and Dodgers accomplish some of their offseason goals.
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
It turns out that this trade makes sense for both teams. One of Atlanta’s offseason priorities was to trade away either Matt Kemp or Nick Markakis so that this could accomplish two things: It would free up salary and it would clear a spot for Ronald Acuna, who is one of the most exciting prospects in baseball right now and is definitely ready for the big leagues. Now there is nothing blocking Acuna from joining the major league squad and the only question is whether the Braves will play the service-time game with Acuna. Add to that the potential boost to the pitching staff that McCarthy and Kazmir could bring, and this could end up being a nice bit of business for Atlanta.
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Additionally, the Braves will have some payroll flexibility for 2019, since the players they acquired in this deal are either on the final year of their contracts or — in the case of Adrian Gonzalez — being designated for assignment.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers are now under the luxury tax threshold for 2018 and they’ve got room to work with. Los Angeles will have just as much flexibility for 2019 and it also figures to be a bigger player in free agency then — which could be an enticing free agency class if players like Manny Machado, Bryce Harper, Craig Kimbrel, and the Dodgers’ own Clayton Kershaw elect to test the waters of free agency.
Adding any one of those new names to Los Angeles’ squad would be a precious addition to what is already a very talented roster, and now there’s a chance that they can get even better and do so without being in too much financial trouble. All of that is now possible just for taking on Matt Kemp’s contract. The baseball world is strange and interesting.
- The Cardinals are one of the many teams pursuing Manny Machado, and in the eyes of Viva El Birdos, a trade for the third baseman would be similar to the deal that brought Jason Heyward to St. Louis.
- Here is FanGraphs’ take on the Braves/Dodgers trade. The most important part of this is the fact that a random fan came up with an amazingly similar trade proposal a couple of weeks ago.
- Matt Kemp is now with the Dodgers, but how long is that going to last?
- Now that Kemp is no longer with the Braves, Talking Chop took a further look at how this affects the Braves going forward.
- CC Sabathia is going to pitch for the Yankees for at least one more season after he signed a one-year deal.
- Speaking of one-year deals, Yovani Gallardo will be returning to the Brewers on a one-year contract.
- Marc Carig of Newsday took Mets ownership to task for its lack of transparency concerning the team’s payroll.
- According to a report out of Japan, the Cubs are currently the favorites to land Yu Darvish.
- The Tigers are going to be bad in 2018 but at least they can take solace in the fact that it probably won’t be as bad as it was in 2003.
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