The phone call that Matt Kemp never saw coming came as he was having lunch with some friends on the afternoon of Dec. 16, 2017. On the other end was his longtime agent, Larry Reynolds, with some surprising news for the veteran outfielder: The Braves—his then-team—were trading him away.
Changing cities was nothing new for Kemp: Atlanta was his third team in his last four years, and his stay there had lasted 16 months. Being dealt is an inescapable part of the business of being a baseball player, and even though Kemp had figured he was staying put with the Braves, learning that he was heading somewhere else wasn’t too huge a shock.