Braves trade Hector Olivera to Padres for Matt Kemp (Updated)

The day started off innocently enough with your standard run of the mill trade rumors about Jim Johnson and whether other teams would overpay for the few valuable and available players out there.

Thats when things got weird.

The Braves started getting connected to several bats never before mentioned, including Brian McCann and Matt Kemp. This elicited the puzzled responses you would expect from the masses, especially given the contracts and productivity of the players in question. However, the intent of the trade on the Braves end came in to focus in the early evening.

As the evening progressed, it became clear that the monetary details were the only things holding up a deal. The differences in Olivera’s and Kemp’s salaries is very signficant, so this sort of bad contract swap is not as simple as the deal, for example, the Braves did with the Indians where Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn, and Chris Johnson’s monies were just shuffled around.

So at that point, it just came down to how much money San Diego was willing to send to the Braves to make the deal happen as the Braves were willing if not eager to shed themselves of Hector Olivera. Once the teams came to an agreement, the trade was finalized pending medicals and whatnot.

Its pretty clear that San Diego simply wanted to free up money and most reports indicate that Olivera will likely be DFA’ed once the trade is completed. Kemp, on the other hand, will certainly see time in the Braves’ outfield where he would presumably play in left field unless the Braves shifted Nick Markakis or Ender Inciarte which, given Kemp’s defensive shortcomings, may be unwise.

Update

The Padres are reportedly sending $10-12 million to the Braves to help offset salary