Cincinnati Reds: Matt Kemp proves any contract can be dealt

New Cincinnati Reds outfielder Matt Kemp was thought to have an untradeable contract. There is no such thing any longer.

Prior to the 2012 season, Matt Kemp had signed an eight year $160 million extension with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kemp was coming off a year where he finished second in the NL MVP vote, having missed a 40-40 season by just a single homer. As he was heading into his prime, this seemed like a perfect contract for the Dodgers.

And then, it was not. Injuries derailed what appeared to be a special career in the making, with Kemp’s contract becoming an albatross for the Dodgers payroll. He was still productive, but no longer the star that he had once been. That contract, which had once seemed like a shrewd investment, was a disaster and would not be able to sent elsewhere.

Funny thing about that belief – it proved false. The Cincinnati Reds newest outfielder has been traded under this contract – four times. Yes, some of those deals were a matter of dumping salary, such as when the Padres sent Kemp to the Braves for Hector Olivera, yet Kemp was still able to be dealt.

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Amongst those different trades, he was even sent back to his original destination. The Braves traded Kemp back to the Dodgers after the 2017 season for Charlie Culberson, Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir, and Brandon McCarthy. It was another salary dump, but Kemp was still a tradeable commodity.

The fact that Kemp was able to be dealt four times disproves the myth that there is a contract that cannot be dealt. Even Homer Bailey was traded, albeit for Kemp as part of another salary dump, but that is part of the nature of the game. Teams will trade bad contracts for bad contracts, hoping a fresh start gets that player going once again.

Yes, some contracts are worse than others. Look at players like Rusney Castillo and Yasmany Tomas who are collecting millions, but are stuck in AAA for the foreseeable future. Yet, if the right deal came along, and a team was looking to take on a bad deal for one of their own, even those contracts could be moved.

When Matt Kemp was sent to the Cincinnati Reds, it marked the fourth time that he had been traded since signing his long term extension. This just goes to show that there is no such thing as an untradeable contract any more.