Which Dodger Outfielder is the Weakest Link?

   Since spring training began this year one of the biggest questions surrounding the Dodgers has been who is going to be the odd outfielder out. The Dodgers have three established veterans as well as a young potential superstar in Yasiel Puig, yet only three of them are able to start each game. The Dodgers likely attempted to trade at least one of their three established veterans during the offseason, but were not able to pull off a deal that was good enough for them. They decided that they would take a wait and see approach to see how it would work and who would do well enough to either prove they deserved a starting spot, or were good enough to put into a reasonable trade package.
   After a tough couple of weeks to start the season, Puig has been on fire and one of the best players in the league. He has proven he has a long and bright future so there is no way the Dodgers will part with him anytime soon. Andre Ethier and Carl Crawford also got off to poor offensive starts to the season, but have been slowly building up their batting averages ever since. Ethier has proven to be a good defensive center fielder as well, which makes the argument for keeping Matt Kemp tougher. Other than a couple of good games this season, Kemp has been terrible at the plate. His fielding was also bad enough that he had to be moved to left field. Crawford ended up getting hurt a few weeks ago, but I believe as soon as he gets off of the disabled list the Dodgers should do what they can to try and trade Matt Kemp.
   Kemp has proven himself to be the fourth best outfielder of the four of them, and has displayed anger at being perceived as so. Kemp hasn't really been the Dodger's fourth best outfielder this year though anyways. That title should go to Scott Van Slyke. Van Slyke doesn't have a monster average, but has shown he has a lot of power and has had some clutch hits already this season. Plus he has been playing some center field lately taking part in a platoon with Andre Ethier. Van Slyke's emergence only makes the argument to trade Matt Kemp even stronger.
   Now Kemp is having a terrible season and is making about 21 million dollars this season, so it is not going to be easy to trade him away. We can't forget that he has five more years and 107 million dollars left on his contract either. No team would be willing to pay that much money for him after seeing how much he has struggled lately. The Dodgers would obviously have to include some money with any trade they make. They also should not expect a top prospect from a team with a good farm system either. The Dodgers main goal in this trade cannot be to help bolster their farm system, it has to be to save some money and restore some order to the Dodgers outfield. The Dodgers would likely have to include at least 20 million dollars of his salary, but that is not much for this ownership, especially when they originally expected to pay him over 100 million dollars more.
   With Kemp gone that would leave a clear starting outfield of Puig, Ethier, and Crawford. It also would let Van Slyke become the fourth outfielder, a role I believe he would thrive in. Down the line it will also make it easier to decide what the team does with one of their top prospects Joc Pederson, who is also of course an outfielder.
   There are 29 teams that the Dodgers can trade Kemp to and I am sure at least one will take a chance with him, as long as the Dodger do not ask for too much in return. As soon as Crawford returns from the disabled list the Dodgers will be back in the same pickle, so they need to do what is best for the team, their outfielders, and of course Matt Kemp too. Kemp has been a Dodger from day one, but unfortunately he needs to play the second half of his career somewhere else.  This could very well all happen in a deadline deal. I guess we will wait over this next month's period and see what happens and if Matt Kemp is still wearing a Dodger's uniform on August 1.