When Matt Kemp entered the Braves clubhouse for the first time Tuesday afternoon, Freddie Freeman was there to hug him. No Brave is likely to benefit more than Freeman from the arrival of the veteran slugger Kemp, who’ll bat cleanup behind him.
“I’m very thrilled,” Freeman said. “When you get a guy like that, All-Star caliber player, 30 (home runs) and 100 (RBIs) every year pretty much, it’s a huge boost to your lineup. To have him hit behind me, hopefully I can get a few more fastballs and hopefully we can have a nice end to this season.
“He’s a guy that can definitely change a game with one swing. He has that capability.”
The Braves acquired Kemp from the Padres in Saturday’s trade for outfielder Hector Olivera.
“This is the last place that I thought I would be,” said Kemp, 31, a former two-time All-Star, former two-time Gold Glove winner and former two-time Silver Slugger Award winner. “It was all happening in one or two days. It was very fast, very shocking. But nice.”
Nice in that Kemp grew up a Braves fan watching the games on TBS at the house where he and his mom lived in Midwest City, Okla., outside Oklahoma City. He said his mom often picked Atlanta to travel to see him play in road games when he was the Dodgers and Padres.
Kemp considered putting on his Braves jersey upon arrival Tuesday and taking a picture to text his mother.
The 2011 National League MVP runner-up when he was with the Dodgers, Kemp is having his best season since 2012, batting .262 with 24 doubles, 23 home runs and 69 RBIs in 100 games before Tuesday.
“It’s awesome, dude,” Braves rookie pitcher Tyrell Jenkins said of the trade for Kemp. “He’s Matt Kemp. When you have a player that everybody knows, a veteran like that, who’s excited to be here and help us out… I mean, what more can you ask for? I think that was a steal for us in that trade.”
Kemp was already in the clubhouse when Jenkins arrived Tuesday. “I introduced myself and said hi, he made a joke about my handshake not being strong enough,” Jenkins said, laughing. “So right then I knew he was going to be a cool guy, a guy we want here for a long time.”
Kemp is signed through 2019 and the Braves are responsible for about $18 million per year in his annual $21.5 million salary over that period.
“He’s a big ol’ boy that can swing the stick,” Braves right fielder Nick Markakis said. “I know that’s what they were looking for. He’s going to be a good addition for our team, both in the clubhouse and on the field.”
Kemp’s home run and RBI totals immediately made him the team leader in both categories for the Braves, and he was inserted in the cleanup spot, playing left field, in his debut Tuesday night in a series opener against the Pirates. The Braves were off Monday, so Kemp met most of his new teammates (and the Atlanta media) Tuesday afternoon, before a closed-door team meeting at 4 p.m.
Braves interim manager Brian Snitker liked being able to put the right-handed hitting Kemp in the No. 4 spot in the batting order, between lefty hitters Freeman and Nick Markakis.
“It looked pretty good there,” Snitker said, smiling. “It stretches that lineup a little bit. So I’m excited to watch him. Had a great meeting with him this afternoon, we came in and he seems like a guy who’s really happy to be here and excited to get going, and we’re excited to have him.”
Kemp’s arrival likely means diminished playing time for Francoeur, whose 43 starts in left field were easily the most among the 10 players the Braves have used at the position this season. With Markakis in right field — Kemp’s position with the Padres — Kemp moves to left, where he last played in 2014 with the Dodgers.
Francoeur, for now, will likely get occasional starts in center and pinch-hitting duties. Francoeur hits lefties well, but not nearly as well as Kemp, who had a .677 slugging percentage and nine homers in 93 at-bats vs. lefties. Freeman (.514) was the only Brave slugging as much as .450 in at least 35 at-bats vs. lefties.
“(Kemp) makes our team better,” Francoeur said. “It obviously sheds a contract (Olivera’s) that I think everybody knows we needed to, and then we got a great player back. He might not be the 2011 version that could run everywhere , but anybody that can hit close to 30 home runs a year in this day and age is tough to find.
“You’re getting a guy who can do some damage hitting in the slot behind Freddie. Every team, I’ve always said, needs a big 3-4 hitter (combination), and we really didn’t have the guy behind Freddie. Now we do. Let’s see what we do the next two months.”
Traded to the Dodgers after the 2014 season, Kemp hit .264 with 46 homers, 169 RBIs, 12 steals (none this season) and a .763 OPS in 254 games over 1 2/3 seasons with the Padres. They wanted to get out from under the remaining three years of his contract and make room for younger players.
“I never thought I would ever get traded,” said Kemp, who has now been traded twice since signing an eight-year, $160 million contract with the Dodgers after his career year in 2011. “I thought I was going to be with the Dodgers. But this is part of the business, this is part of the game – moving on. It’s another chapter in my life and I’m excited to get it started.”
