Nine years ago, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks each had a dynamic young outfielder you could build a team around. They were cornerstone players with a heady mix of speed and power, poised to lead their teams in a battle for National League West supremacy for years to come.
Things didn’t quite work out that way for Matt Kemp and Justin Upton.
Promise, then pushed out
Which is not to say those were lost years, of course. Kemp stayed with the Dodgers through the 2014 season, slashing an average of .