Phillies fans love gritty players. We like the guys who play in dirty uniforms and don’t look for days off. Guys like Lenny Dykstra, Dave Hollins, Darren Daulton, and Pete Incaviglia. It might not take too long for Philly to completely embrace Otto Kemp. The 26-year-old rookie already had a great back story and after what we learned on Thursday, it’s easy to have a new found respect for the guy.
At his end of season press conference, Dave Dombrowski dropped what was a seemingly innocent comment when asked about injuries. He mentioned that Nick Castellanos was getting his knee checked out after having some pain in the knee throughout the season and then he talked about Kemp: “Probably the only guy that I know has to have some things done is Otto Kemp; he has to have some things cleaned up in his case.”
At the press conference, Dombrowski never did elaborate on the injuries that Kemp played through, but later, Matt Gelb of The Athletic disclosed that not only had Kemp been playing through some shoulder pain, but he also played through having fractured his knee cap back in June. The injury happened when Kemp fouled a ball off his knee and after having the trainer come out for a quick look, stayed in the game and continued the at-bat.
“Otto Kemp, he’s had that basically all year and of course, he was leading the league in home runs when he was at Triple-A. He is a tough player, he is tough. I’m not sure that a lot of players, a lot of people period, would play with some of the things that he had and I’m sure that it affected him to some extent, but he is really tough,” said Dombrowski with a very determined look on his face. “I think Otto Kemp has a chance to be an everyday player. I think he has a chance to be an everyday player next year; he has thump in his bat, that ball jumps off his bat. We really like him, we like his make up . He can play a couple of different spots as you’ve seen; would he play all over the place, that also is a possibility, but we really like him a great deal.”
GET YOUR OTTO KEMP PARAPHERNALIA
Kemp opened the season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley and was, in fact, leading the International League in home runs with 14 when he was first called up to the majors on June 7th. He was slashing .260/.327/.320 after his first 14 games, but went into a slide that carried his average down to .228 by mid-August and he was sent back to the IronPigs. He returned to play 16 games with the Phillies in September and hit four home runs with 11 RBI and a slash line of .250/.298/.558. He finished the year batting .234/.298/.411 with eight home runs and 28 RBI at the major league level. He also played at first, second, third, and in left field for Philadelphia.
The jury is out as to whether Kemp could be an everyday player or not, but there is no denying that the Phillies are high on him and have him penciled into their plans for the 2026 season.
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