Five-Tool MLBbro Matt Kemp’s 2011 MVP Snub Remembered As He Officially Retires
LOS ANGELES – After 15 great years in the big leagues, Matt Kemp has officially retired from baseball.
A sixth round pick in the 2003 MLB draft, Kemp is remembered primarily for his days with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he spent a total of nine seasons, receiving three All-Star selections, two Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, and was the NL home run and RBI leader in 2011 with 39 and 126, which earned him the Hank Aaron award as being voted the best hitter in the NL, and was second in NL MVP voting.
He also set the Dodgers franchise record at the time when he signed an eight-year contract worth $160 million in the 2011 offseason.
Matt Kemp Was One Of The Best Players Of His Era
Over the course of his career, Kemp had a .284/.337/.484 slashline, with 287 total home runs, and 1,031 RBI, and had a total WAR of 21.4.
2011 was by far Kemp’s best year in the bigs, playing a total of 161 regular season games. He earned All-Star honors, one of his Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, along with the Hank Aaron Award and almost won MVP. He hit .324, with an on-base percentage of .399 and a slugging percentage of .586. He also had 40 steals, which was second in the NL. He was the first player since Hank Aaron in 1963 to finish top two in both home runs and stolen bases.
Matt Kemp Robbed Of MVP: Ryan Braun PED Scandal
However, 2011 was the year that Ryan Braun won the MVP over Kemp, but it was later revealed that Braun tested positive for PEDs and was eventually suspended by the MLB. After a song and dance where he tried to put the blame on a sample handler, in August of 2013, MLB suspended Braun for the rest of the season — 65 games — making him the first player suspended in MLB’s investigation of the Biogenesis lab.
Many of the voters admitted that if there was a redo vote, Kemp would most likely be the 2011 NL MVP. Kemp also publicly came out condemning Braun, saying that his MVP should have been stripped.
Kemp played for the boys in blue from 2006-2014, but during the 2014 offseason, Kemp was the centerpiece of a blockbuster deal that sent him, Tim Federowicz and $32 million in cash to the division rival San Diego Padres for Joe Wieland, Yasmani Grandal, and Zach Eflin.
He would play in San Diego for one and a half seasons, where he hit .264 with 46 home runs and 169 RBI before eventually getting dealt to the Atlanta Braves at the 2016 trade deadline. He would play with them till the end of the 2017 season.
Kemp was then traded back to the Dodgers for the 2018 season, where he ended up having a resurgence in his career. He started off the season batting .316, which earned him his third All-Star appearance. He also played in his one and only Fall Classic against the Red Sox, where he homered in his first World Series at bat.
Kemp also played for the Cincinnati Reds in 2019 and the Colorado Rockies in 2020, which was his last appearance in the bigs.
Although he is no longer playing, Kemp is still involved in the game, as he is back with the Dodgers serving in an advisory role. His presence on the field will truly be missed, as he is a supreme MLBbro and a player that fans will never forget.
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