While it’s been a relatively quiet offseason for the Los Angeles Dodgers, they pulled off one of the more notable transactions this winter by unloading the contracts of Adrian Gonzalez, Scott Kazmir and Brandon McCarthy to the Atlanta Braves for Matt Kemp.
The acquisition of Kemp was nevertheless shocking, considering that he was traded by the current front office to the rival San Diego Padres just three years ago. But by taking him back from the Braves, Los Angeles achieved its goal of shedding enough short-term salary to stay beneath the luxury tax threshold of $197 million for the 2018 season.