After much speculation regarding whether or not Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp would be traded to the Padres, the agreement was settled on Thursday night. San Diego also made a trade with the Oakland Athletics and is on the verge of acquiring a starting pitcher.
The deal is official. Kemp will head to San Diego along with catcher Tim Federowicz and $32 million for catcher Yasmani Grandal, starter Joe Wieland and prospect starter Zach Eflin. Bob Nightengale of USA Today reported on Thursday that the Padres' medical staff revealed Kemp had arthritis in both hips, which was holding up the trade from going through.
However, Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports noted the two sides "worked through the lingering issues" and made the transaction official. San Diego apparently tried to squeeze more money out of the Dodgers to cover Kemp's salary, but Los Angeles declined, according to FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal. Now that the deal is done, the Dodgers will now work on making their trade with the Philadelphia Phillies for shortstop Jimmy Rollins official. It's believed they are sending Eflin to the Phillies, so the initial holdup in the Kemp trade was holding up the Rollins trade.
But the Padres are being active outside their endeavors with the Dodgers. San Diego acquired catcher Derek Norris from the Oakland Athletics on Thursday, according to Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News. The 25-year-old Norris was the centerpiece of the trade, while the Padres also received prospect pitcher Seth Streich and an international signing slot and sent pitchers Jesse Hahn and R.J. Alvarez to Oakland. While they traded Hahn, who was an up-and-coming starter, they're reportedly close to signing Josh Johnson after declining his player option earlier this offseason.
Norris earned his first All-Star recognition in his third MLB season after slashing .270/.361/.403 with 10 home runs and 55 RBIs in 127 games with the Athletics. He'll likely start behind the plate for San Diego since the team just traded Grandal to the Dodgers as well as Rene Rivera to the Tampa Bay Rays.
As for Johnson, the Padres declined his $4 million team option for 2015 back in October and are on the verge of re-signing him, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports. The deal is believed to be incentive-laden for games started since the right-hander has had injury troubles and made just 56 starts over the past four seasons (none in 2014).
There's more news to come regarding the Padres, who reportedly just acquired another young outfielder from an NL East team.
