The San Diego Padres have acquired outfielder Matt Kemp from the Los Angeles Dodgers, according to reports Thursday morning. The deal sends Kemp and catcher Tim Federowicz to San Diego for catcher Yasmani Grandal, right-hander Joe Wieland, and pitching prospect Zach Eflin, who has since been dealt to the Phillies to complete the Jimmy Rollins trade. The deal still needs to be approved by the commissioner because money is going from Los Angeles to San Diego along with Kemp and Federowicz. The Padres will be paying Kemp $15 million per season for the rest of his contract, which means that $32 million will be paid by the Dodgers. The 30-year-old Kemp played mostly in right field for the Dodgers this past season. He slashed .287/.346/.506 with 25 homers and 89 runs batted in. Kemp's homer total was the biggest since 2011, when he finished second in the MVP voting to Ryan Braun. He hit 39 homers, drove in 126 (both leading the National League), and posted a .324 batting average. Over his career, he has a .292/.349/.495 slash line in nine big league seasons, all with the Dodgers. The main piece the Dodgers do receive from San Diego is catcher Yasmani Grandal. The 26-year-old Grandal played his first full big league season this past year, hitting .225/.327/.401 with an OPS of .728, while slugging 15 homers and 49 runs batted in. Grandal is a former first round pick and is a below-average defender, according to both defensive runs saved and UZR. The Dodgers and Padres had been discussing a Kemp-for-Grandal centerpiece for a few weeks now, but some were unsure that they would be able to get it done. The Dodgers have mad a ton of moves at these Winter Meetings and this Kemp trade just adds to the reshuffling of the roster that Andrew Friedman has wanted to do since becoming the team's President of Baseball Operations earlier this offseason. As for the Padres, they finally acquired that bat they missed out on in both the Pablo Sandoval and Yasmany Tomas sweepstakes. While Kemp is a few years older, and signed through 2019, at $15 million a year he is definitely worth a shot for them. A.J. Preller, as the new Padres GM, has made a ton of noise, being interested in acquiring players the Padres have historically weren't able to. The acquisition of Kemp might just the beginning of the changing of the tide in San Diego. --Devan Fink
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