Padres Trade Rumors: Padres Interested In Matt Kemp

With all the rumors that fly around at this time of year, nothing should surprise anyone, but I was a little taken aback when I saw this tweet from Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

While it was nothing more than some conversations that happened awhile ago, it does show a willingness between both sides to make a deal. The Padres are interested in taking on Kemp’s massive deal, and the Dodgers are interested in potentially dealing one of their top hitters to a division rival.

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On the surface it sounds great for the Padres. They take a top player player from a division rival and he fills an area of need. He’s a career .292/.349/.495 hitter whose been consistently productive even with all of the questions that have been surrounding him the past couple years. The issue is the money and the talent it’ll cost for him.

Kemp is owed $107 million over the next 5 seasons, and while he may not be worth that much he is still a right handed power bat, a rarity in today’s game. Because of that the Dodgers aren’t likely to eat much, if any, money on the deal and ask for top tier talent in return. That means multiple top prospects and maybe even some talent off the big league roster to along with them.

We all know the Padres have the prospects to get a deal if they want to be, but what about the money? They haven’t been known for making paying top dollar for anyone, and this would be a clear shift in philosophy. Well if the rumors are to be believed, then that change has already occurred. The Padres had reportedly offered Pablo Sandoval a deal worth north of $100 million before he signed with the Red Sox. This shows there’s money waiting to be spent, and Kemp may be the guy who ends up collecting those checks.

At the end of the day, it’ll be tough to make a deal that both sides would be comfortable with. The Padres can’t mortgage their future for one overpaid hitter, even if they desperately need one like him. And the Dodgers plan on contending in 2015 and Kemp would need to bring back something of great value for that to happen. Talks will happen, but this doesn’t appear to be a fit.