Padres executive isn't backing down from criticism of Matt Kemp
Padres executive chairman Ron Fowler isn’t backing down.
Fowler, speaking to fans at a “town hall” meeting Wednesday, referred to Matt Kemp’s open letter to Braves fans as a “bunch of B.S.”
The executive, in an email exchange, essentially repeated his comments to me on Friday.
Kemp, traded by the Padres to the Braves last Sunday, subsequently admitted in an article for The Players’ Tribune that he had developed a reputation as “selfish, lazy and a bad teammate.”
That reputation dates to Kemp’s tenure with the Dodgers, before the Padres obtained him for catcher Yasmani Grandal in a five-player deal on Dec. 18, 2014.
So on Friday, I followed up with Fowler on his remarks.
I wrote to Fowler, “Kemp’s reputation was not exactly a secret within the game when he was with the Dodgers. The Padres made the decision to acquire him. To some degree, shouldn’t you have known what you were getting?”
Fowler said his response was in reaction to a question about Kemp’s open letter to Atlanta fans in The Players’ Tribune.
Kemp wrote, in part, “While I may not agree with all the criticism I received in the past few years – and while I believe that a lot of it is unmerited – I take full responsibility for my shortcomings. And I promise you, Atlanta: Those days are gone.”
Fowler responded, “He made the same type of statement to our fans when we traded for him. I called his comments B.S., because his actions are inconsistent with his words.
“My whole spiel was about winning ... We had some high-priced talent that was not contributing to more wins ... We’re moving in another direction.”
Actually, Kemp’s offensive performance for the Padres was fairly consistent.
Kemp, who turns 32 on Sept. 23, appeared in 154 games for the Padres last season, batting .265 with 23 homers, 100 RBIs and a .755 OPS.
Before getting sent to the Braves, he had appeared in 100 of the Padres’ 103 games this season, batting .262 with 23 homers, 69 RBIs and a .774 OPS.
Kemp’s defense, though, was another matter.
Advanced metrics portrayed his play in right field as poor, dropping his overall performance to barely above replacement, according to Fangraphs.com.
His poor reputation as a fielder also is nothing new: Kemp also rated as a below-average defender from 2009 to ’14 with the Dodgers.
