After what analysts have called a “reinvention” of the Dodgers’ returning outfielder, Matt Kemp, the Major League Baseball Player’s Association has voted Kemp in as the winner of the 2018 MLBPAA National League Comeback Player of the Year.
Matt Kemp heard from his agent during the 2017 offseason that his team at that point, the Atlanta Braves, had traded the then two-time All-Star in order to dump salary. For a moment his agent joked with him about his new team before giving him the news that Kemp had been hoping to hear: “You’re going to be a Dodger again,” Kemp was told.
Kemp flew from Atlanta, Georgia to Los Angeles, California and almost immediately went to work on reforming his figure, improving his game, and frankly proving to doubters that he belonged with the team who drafted him back in the 2003 June Amateur Draft.
When Kemp made it to baseball’s cathedral and the place that Kemp called home for the first nine seasons of his Major League career, the staff and crew were familiar to him and warmly welcomed his return, Kemp told in interviews following his return.
“I always wanted to come home,” are the words Matt Kemp spoke that swirled around the media all through the Winter and well into Spring Training. Kemp managed to lose about 50 pounds over the offseason through heavy conditioning, and even went as far as to say during one of his Spring Training press conferences that this was the “best [he] ever felt” in his career.
Friday, February 23rd; game one of the Dodgers’ Spring Training schedule versus the Chicago White Sox in Arizona. Matt Kemp batted fifth in the Dodgers’ order, which surprised those who wrote him off as a player the team would designate for assignment before Winter broke. Kemp silenced the speculation and brought hopeful fans to their feet in the third inning of that first game of his in a Dodgers uniform since 2014, launching a three-run home run over the wall in left field at Camelback Ranch.
Matt Kemp punched his ticket to a spot on the Dodgers’ active roster with this standout performance during Spring Training, and the tough, relentless work he put in over the Winter to rejuvenate his career. Kemp started in left field and batted fifth for the Dodgers in their Opening Day lineup against the San Francisco Giants.
Matt Kemp earned the honor of representing the National League by being voted into a starting role on the 2018 NL All-Star team. It was clear to anyone who watched Dodgers games in the first half of the season that one of the primary reasons the team stayed afloat was Matt Kemp’s offensive contributions. Kemp finished the All-Star Game 1 for 2, corking a double to left field off of the New York Yankees’ young ace, Luis Severino.
While the 2018 season brought Matt Kemp home and his third ticket to the All-Star Game, it also brought Kemp his first taste of a World Series. The Dodgers would start Kemp in both games one and two at Fenway Park versus the Boston Red Sox. As no one could have possibly predicted at that time a year before, the Dodgers got their first score of the 2018 World Series courtesy of a Matt Kemp home run over the ‘Green Monster’ in left field.
Matt Kemp’s 2018 regular season numbers capped off including a .290 batting average, 21 home runs, and 85 runs batted in.
Although he wasn’t recognized by the writers and analysts of the Baseball Writer’s Association of America (BBWAA) for Comeback Player of the Year honors, a vote from his peers confirmed that players around the league bought into Kemp’s journey and success in 2018, and rightfully honored Matt Kemp as Comeback Player of the Year.
Congratulations, Matt!
Arrick Joel has covered the Dodgers since 2017, and for Dodgers-LowDown since 2018. Follow @ArrickJoel and @DodgersLowDown on Twitter for more.