What the heck are the Orioles doing messing around with Tony Kemp?
There isn’t, or shouldn’t be, a space on the roster for a lefty infielder who has hit badly for two straight seasons.
A regular feature since Mike Elias has been the Orioles general manager is a roster move that shakes up the assumed picture within days of Opening Day. It’s happened the past three years before this and he’s done it again two days before Opening Day 2024. The Orioles on Tuesday afternoon announced the signing of veteran infielder Tony Kemp to a major league contract ahead of the start of this season.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/73234558/1831380504.0.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
Kemp, 32, languished as a free agent for much of the offseason before signing a deal with the Reds after spring training had already begun. Cincinnati chose to release Kemp a week ago, putting him back out there for anyone to sign. The Orioles, for reasons that cannot immediately have a rational basis assigned to them, have swooped in to pick up Kemp with days until the season begins.
Over the past two seasons, Kemp a lefty batter, has combined to hit .224/.306/.321. In the 2023 season, he rated poorly at just about every aspect of either hitting, fielding, or running. In bWAR terms, that was a -1.0 for the Athletics a year ago. The one area of exception is that he hardly ever swings and misses, and going along with that, he hardly ever strikes out. Kemp struck out in just 9.5% of plate appearances in 2023 – nearly unheard of in today’s game. He walked more often than he struck out.
There is some notional positional versatility in Kemp’s profile, as long as you don’t scrutinize it even a tiny bit. While with Oakland in 2022 and 2023, Kemp has played second base and left field in roughly equal amounts. His defensive numbers were not good at either one of these, and with his sprint speed being in just the 23rd percentile, it’s hard to figure he would be a good candidate to play any amount of time in left field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The immediate change to the roster with this move is that the Orioles designated infielder Nick Maton for assignment. Maton was already known to have not made the team and the out-of-options infielder was going to have to be DFA’d before the Opening Day roster was set regardless. However, Kemp signing the major league deal presumably locks him in to a 26-man roster spot, which means that someone who we had assumed had made the roster will now probably not make it.
