Matt Kemp stands behind agent Dave Stewart’s comments, would accept trade for more playing time.

Matt Kemp

Matt Kemp has played three innings in center field since May 22. (Associated Press photo)


ST. LOUIS>>Matt Kemp insists he’s a center fielder. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has used Kemp in left field, not center, for all but three innings since May 22.

Kemp insists he’s an everyday player. With the Dodgers, he’s part of a five-man outfield rotation.

This apparent conflict of opinions hasn’t prompted Kemp to ask the Dodgers for a trade — a popular opinion with the trade deadline approaching and a headline like this one appearing on FoxSports.com.

But Kemp was happy to clarify the comments made by his agent, Dave Stewart, that Kemp would prefer to be playing center field rather than receiving inconsistent playing time in left or right.

“I want to be in a situation where I play every day,” he said Friday. “If it’s with the Dodgers, if it’s with someone else, that’s not my decision.

“I don’t have a no-trade clause. I don’t have any of that. I’m a Dodger. I’m going to play and help them any way I can. I’m blessed that I can wear a jersey and play the game I love to play.”

Kemp said that he is still building himself up physically. He wasn’t able to run for much of spring training after undergoing surgery on the talus bone in his left foot last October. The recovery is still preventing him from doing some lower-body workouts — “being on a track, things like that,” he said — that he’s counted on in years past.

Yet he didn’t lean on his recovery as an excuse during a candid criticism of his defensive play. Kemp has made four errors in center field and once since moving to left.

“I probably haven’t played defense as well as I have” in the past, Kemp said. “There’s some truth behind me not playing good defense. There’s some errors I can cut down on, some fly balls I could’ve flagged.”

Kemp was equally critical of his play at the plate, saying he can cut down on strikeouts and have better at-bats. His .269 batting average and .760 OPS are both below his career averages of .291 and .837.

Improving his play on the field is within his control; being traded isn’t. A trade might be the only way Kemp returns to center field full time, however, and Kemp is supremely confident that will happen.

Sometime. Somewhere.

“I’m going to play center field again,” he said. “I’m going to play every day.”

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.