Woluld Orioles Be Interested in One of the 3 Dodger Outfielders Up For Trade?

[section18]

Ken Rosenthal is reporting the Dodgers are trying to trade one of Kemp, Crawford and Ethier and will pay a lot of their salary. This has been talked about before and there are mixed opinions as to whether any of them would help the Orioles. If we can obtain one of them and keep our part of their salary under $10 million per year should we pursue one of them? Assuming the trade does not include one of our key players or Gausman should we be trying to work a deal?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

[El Gordo]

Ken Rosenthal is reporting the Dodgers are trying to trade one of Kemp, Crawford and Ethier and will pay a lot of their salary. This has been talked about before and there are mixed opinions as to whether any of them would help the Orioles. If we can obtain one of them and keep our part of their salary under $10 million per year should we pursue one of them? Assuming the trade does not include one of our key players or Gausman should we be trying to work a deal?

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/

Which of our current OF options besides Jones is better than Kemp, Crawford, or even Ethier at 10 M per?

[RVAbird]

I'd be interested in Kemp or Ethier in the right deal. Definitely something worth discussing.

[section18]

Kemp is the only one of the three I'd be interested in obtaining. He is mostly a CF. Who would move to LF assuming Nick signs. Kemp or AJ? Kemp has played CF, RF and LF and played all three last year at different times. If we sign Cruz and added Kemp for LF or RF depending on Nick we would definitely be improved.

[zxlkho]

Kemp is the only one of the three I'd be interested in obtaining. He is mostly a CF. Who would move to LF assuming Nick signs. Kemp or AJ? Kemp has played CF, RF and LF and played all three last year at different times. If we sign Cruz and added Kemp for LF or RF depending on Nick we would definitely be improved.

Kemp is an awful, awful CF.

[Tryptamine]

Kemp is an awful, awful CF.

This can't be overstated enough. The man put up an .852OPS this year and still only put together a 1.8fWAR season because he was so awful out there. The bad part is that it wasn't only CF where he was terrible, he was awful in the roughly 850 innings combined he played in LF and RF as well. The best bet would be throw him in RF, where he seems to do the least damage defensively, and hope he out hits his defense enough to be worth 21M in 2015 and 21.5M in 2016-2019.

[25 Nuggets]

This can't be overstated enough. The man put up an .852OPS this year and still only put together a 1.8fWAR season because he was so awful out there. The bad part is that it wasn't only CF where he was terrible, he was awful in the roughly 850 innings combined he played in LF and RF as well. The best bet would be throw him in RF, where he seems to do the least damage defensively, and hope he out hits his defense enough to be worth 21M in 2015 and 21.5M in 2016-2019.

Except, the Dodgers state they will pay a significant portion of the contract, depending on the return. I would take Kemp at roughly half his salary and plug him in at DH. 'Course, who would the Orioles have to give up?

[BradyBunch]

I will take Matt Kemp if it's not gonna touch any of our young arms or Schoop. He'd be a good filler if we can't or won't sign Cruz. So if they want Hunter/Matusz and say Gonzo.. do the deal.

[Tryptamine]

Except, the Dodgers state they will pay a significant portion of the contract, depending on the return. I would take Kemp at roughly half his salary and plug him in at DH. 'Course, who would the Orioles have to give up?

To eat that much money I would think the asking price would be shockingly high. If they were going to eat half a contract and expect nothing back I'm sure they'd rather get rid of Ethier.

[steva84]

Kemp said he wants to play in center. No way I think...

[Crazysilver03]

Kemp is the only one of the three I'd be interested in obtaining. He is mostly a CF. Who would move to LF assuming Nick signs. Kemp or AJ? Kemp has played CF, RF and LF and played all three last year at different times. If we sign Cruz and added Kemp for LF or RF depending on Nick we would definitely be improved.

You always seem a little out of touch with reality with some of your posts and you continue it here. No way Jones moves out of CF.

[weams]

He is mostly a CF. Who would move to LF assuming Nick signs. Kemp or AJ? .

Kemp can't play center. Even though the Dodger have tried.

[stomperspc]

I prefer Ethier over the other two for a few reasons.

First, he has the least prohibitive contract of the three which un-complicates a potential deal some. Ethier has two years at $18 m and 2017 at $17.5 m left along with a 2018 vesting option for $17.5 m ($2.5 m buyout). Kemp makes $21.5 m per year through 2019. Crawford makes $20.50 m, $20.75 m, and $21.00 m over the next three seasons. Ethier is making less than those two by a somewhat significant amount and has the same amount of guaranteed years as Crawford. The option vests with 550 PA's in 2017 or 1,100 over the 2016/2017. If he rarely bats against a lefty, they could probably keep that from vesting naturally.

Kemp is likely to be more of a headache with his desire to play CF. I also have trouble imagining the Dodgers letting him go in a complete salary dump. Crawford has had less than 400 PA's two of the last three years and less than 470 in each of the last three seasons. His value is held up by his defense right now. For a guy like that, I'd rather go with Lough who is already in the system, younger, much cheaper, ect.

I don't want to speculate on what it would take to get Ethier, but if the Orioles were paying $8 m or less per season and didn't have to give up a prospect or any major piece to acquire him, it is definitely worth exploring. They could then non-tender or attempt to trade De Aza and come out just about even for 2015 in terms of payroll. Even in his worst offensive season last year, Ethier had a .325 OBP versus RHP. He would likely slot in as the DH versus RHP pitching with Pearce or Lough in LF (depending on well Pearce continues to hit RHP). He'd probably be used like Cruz was this year in terms of getting some starts in the OF when appropriate (although ideally less than Cruz got).

[wildcard]

I would pass on all three Dodger outfielders.

[luismatos4prez]

I would not like Kemp since he cannot play defense at all, even in the corner positions. Ethier is a replacement level player at this point in his career and we can do better.

Crawford is sort of interesting though. Still an above average left fielder at this point. But he's not that much better than De Aza who's cheaper and we don't have to give up even a bad prospect for.