San Diego Padres have agreed to trade for Matt Kemp

I've been waiting and waiting for somebody I trust to tell me who our next third baseman offensive threat is, and Dennis Lin is that guy (I don't really know who Kirk Kenney is yet).

According to Lin and UT San Diego, the Kemp deal breaks down as this: The Padres would deal Yasmani Grandal, Joe Wieland and Zach Eflin to the Dodgers in exchange for Matt Kemp, catcher Tim Federowicz and $30 million. The remaining contract on Kemp would work out to $77 million over the next five years, or put in a way that minds can fathom, a paltry $15.4 million per year, taxes be damned.

The deal is pending physicals and approval from the Commissioner's Office. Considering the Padres have a physical landmark in place with the Commissioner's Office, I'm hoping that this transition goes smoothly. (It's a "physical" pun).

Personally, I really [like] this deal. We trade from depth in terms of pitching prospects (read: future Tommy John surgeries) and a catcher who was ready to move on and we get a sexy, flashy bat at left field to finally replace that mopey guy we had there before. With the potential of Austin Hedges in the (hopefully near) future and the Padres (hopefully) not done dealing, I, for one, welcome our new hot corner. Also, you can't beat this deal. Just a few weeks ago, we were considering welcoming a Panda at over $20 million per year, and Kemp outperforms Panda in a lot of ways (though admittedly given a few extra years in terms of age). Still, it's very very very hard to argue that we didn't improve offensively for the coming year.

And if nothing else, this is much better news than realizing that Vinny Castilla is going to be your opening day third baseman. #tbt