Matt Kemp's arthritis delaying Dodgers - Padres trade

The Padres traded with the Dodgers during the winter meetings to bring Matt Kemp to San Diego, but while everything was agreed to, nothing was official. The players involved still had to pass their physicals, and given that those in the deal had almost all suffered major injuries in the recent past, this was no small thing. The last holdup is for Matt Kemp, whose physical reportedly revealed that he has arthritis in both hips, according to USA Today's Bob Nightengale. Nightengale also reports that the Padres are still talking with medical experts to figure out the best course of action going forward.

The deadline for the trade to be completed is Thursday. The options appear to be the most obvious but also most unlikely action of nixing the deal entirely, changing the players involved to lower Kemp's price in that regard for San Diego, or to have the Dodgers chip in even more money than the $30 million of the remaining $107 million on Kemp's deal. That last bit would give the Padres a bit more insurance in the long run, as if Kemp's hips became a problem on the field, he wouldn't be tying up so much of their budget as he declines.

FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal warned on Twitter that things will "turn ugly" if the Padres back out, with the Dodgers responding in the "strongest possible fashion." What exactly that entails is unknown, but it sounds like precisely the kind of thing commissioner Bud Selig won't want to deal with in his last weeks in office.