The Los Angeles Dodgers received bad news on Thursday regarding Matt Kemp's physical after he was examined by the San Diego Padres' medical staff. There's now a chance the trade either falls through or the Dodgers have to fork over more money to San Diego.
According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, the Padres' medical staff found Kemp has arthritis in both hips, which has been the reason for the holdup in the trade going through. Kemp was traded to the Padres last week for three players, but the deal has yet to become official because of apparent issues with the outfielder's health. Nightengale noted the team is continuing to consult medical experts to determine whether or not this will significantly affect Kemp in the long-term.
There remains one problem. According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo! Sports, when a trade is executed each team has 72 hours to conduct medical exams on players involved in the deal. Unfortunately, in this case, time is of the essence (the physical began on Tuesday) at this point and the Padres won't be able to send Kemp to a specialist to get his hips examined and find out more details. So there is a decent chance this trade falls through and results in Kemp, catcher Tim Federowicz and $32 million heading back to Los Angeles while catcher Yasmani Grandal, starter Joe Wieland and prospect Zach Eflin return to San Diego.
Another option is that San Diego requests more money from the Dodgers to help pay off Kemp's contract since, well, the Dodgers don't really care about giving away money to get rid of players they don't like (Dan Haren, Brian Wilson and soon Brandon League).
The Padres need to determine whether or not this will seriously hamper Kemp down the road because that remains the most pressing issue. The 30-year-old obviously played through the ailment this past season and was fine after slashing .287/.346/.506 with 25 home runs and 89 RBIs in 150 games. San Diego is set to pay Kemp $15 million per year over the next five seasons and are giving up decent value in this trade.
One of those valuable pieces the Dodgers are set to receive from the Padres is likely going straight to Philadelphia to complete Los Angeles' other trade with the Phillies. It's believed Zach Eflin will head out east and the Dodgers will acquire shortstop Jimmy Rollins, but many were speculating that deal would be nixed if the Kemp trade fell through. Well, rest assured, it looks like the Rollins-to-Dodgers deal remains alive regardless of what happens in the Kemp trade.
"According to sources, the trade that will send Rollins to the Dodgers remains in place," Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly writes. "However, the Phillies may have to get a player other than Eflin if the Kemp-to-San Diego trade falls through. Sources say the Phillies and Dodgers have discussed other players as part of the deal."
The verdict of the trade will be known within the next 24 hours.
