During a nationally-televised National League East showdown between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies on June 21, play-by-play announcer Adam Amin marveled at the man at bat for the Phillies, rookie Otto Kemp (22), who had made his major league debut two weeks earlier.
Amin told viewers about the injuries that Kemp suffered in high school, which wound up costing him a chance to play Division I college baseball.
“So he ended up going to Point Loma Nazarene, one of the absolute prettiest campuses that you will find in this country,” Amin said. “And that’s where things started to solidify for him. They wanted him, and that was the other difference, too.”
Amin explained that things weren’t easy at PLNU either, however, with multiple injuries and a blood clot that cost him significant time. No team chose Kemp in the 2022 Major League Baseball draft, but a few days later, the Phillies offered him a slot with their rookie league team. Now, three years later, he was starting at first base for a pennant contender on national TV.
Just as Amin finished summarizing Kemp’s injury challenges, as if on cue, Mets pitcher Huascar Brazobán drilled him with a pitch.
“Oh, Kemp gets hit, and that is something that he has been, if you want to say, adept at, since his days at Point Loma Nazarene,” Amin said. “He gets hit a ton.” But Kemp stayed in the game, and finished 1-for-3 with a double.
The Phillies had called Kemp up to replace injured star first baseman Bryce Harper after Kemp’s torrid start to the season in the minors – a .313 average with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 58 games at AAA Lehigh Valley.
About a month after his big league debut, Kemp was back in San Diego for a series against the Padres at Petco Park, in front of 500 or 600 friends, former teammates and family members, he estimated. Kemp is from Fullerton, California.
“We had a lot of Point Loma and high school players that I played with,” Kemp said. “So it was cool to have all phases of my baseball career meet up at one point, and have that full circle moment where I get to come back, where baseball is taking me back to Petco.”
A right-handed hitter who is starting against lefties early in his big league career — initially at first base, and after Harper’s return, mostly in the outfield but occasionally at third base — Kemp is off to a solid start. Three games after the All-Star break, he was batting .260 with two homers and 12 RBIs in 27 games.
Kemp sees his role with the Phillies as fluid.
“I’m kind of just rolling with whatever they need from me, and I feel like that is a good spot to be in,” he said. “Just doing what you can when your name gets called and letting the rest take care of itself.”
It means a lot to Kemp that he is the first position player from Division II PLNU to play in the majors (two pitchers, Marty Decker and Mike Ekstrom, have preceded him).
“To me it’s, that’s everything,” Kemp said. “You can make it from wherever you’re at. I think that there’s a lot of people that get discouraged that they play at Division II, and Point Loma is a smaller school. Hopefully it just juices up the people that are there now that they can make it and to keep working — and give people hope, let people dream that they can make it too.”
Kemp recalled that during the draft process, six or seven MLB teams had reached out, but only the Phillies followed up with an offer. He’s used that as a motivator.
“Going through that now, it just makes me, one, just grateful for them, but two, wanting to prove to all the other 29 teams that they missed me,” he said. “In this game it’s a really long season, and you need motivation to keep you going on some days. That is definitely one of those things where you kind of keep that chip on your shoulder. That one really motivates me to just keep working.”
Kemp has impressed his teammates, including Harper, who was the first overall draft choice back in 2010, with his tenacity.
“He’s a grinder, man,” Harper told USA TODAY Sports. “It just goes to show it doesn’t matter where you are, where you play or anything like that. Scouts are going to see you as long as you’re playing well and playing hard. He had the opportunity to come in here and do his job and we’re fortunate he’s done that for us. He deserves the opportunity. He deserves the moment.”
During his college career, Kemp had gaudy stats — hitting .356 batting with 33 home runs and 101 RBIs in 121 games. That included 17 homers in his final season, when he reached base safely in all 61 games.
“It just goes to show it doesn’t matter where you are, where you play or anything like that. Scouts are going to see you as long as you’re playing well and playing hard. He had the opportunity to come in here and do his job and we’re fortunate he’s done that for us. He deserves the opportunity. He deserves the moment.”
– Bryce Harper, Phillies first baseman
His successful final season came after overcoming those string of health issues, including the blood clot and a dislocated shoulder. But Kemp now says he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
“I see it as the reason that I got here,” Kemp said. “There were so many things that it taught me, I could go on and on about all those different injuries and what I was learning through that specific time. But every single one of those taught me something different, and so it’s something that I use either in my baseball life or my day-to-day that keeps me grounded.”
“I’m really grateful for them, honestly; I’m glad I’m glad they happened,” Kemp added. “I’m not necessarily glad they happened the way they did, but I’m glad that we came out of it like this. There’s just a lot of learning that took place.”
He credits PLNU head coach Justin James with teaching him to “play the game within the game.”
“Every time that you are on the field, there’s a job that needs to be done, to help your team win,” Kemp explained. “Whether that is moving a runner to third base after someone hits a leadoff double, those kind of little things. It’s knowing when you walk up to the plate, there’s a goal in mind — understanding what the scoreboard is telling you and what game situations are telling you, and then playing the game off of that. Not, ‘Hey, I want to hit .350 this year.’”
