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Tournaments  | Story | 10/14/2025

MLB Star Matt Kemp Impressed by Jupiter

Jim Salisbury
Photo: Josiah Kemp (Perfect Game)
Former MLB All-Star Matt Kemp impressed with all things Jupiter

JUPITER, Florida – Three-time Major League All-Star Matt Kemp couldn’t help but smile as he sat behind the backstop and watched his nephew play in Perfect Game’s 2025 WWBA World Championship tournament.

“He used to come to all of my games when I played and now I’m going to all his games,” Kemp said. “I love it.”



Kemp retired from a 15-year big-league career after the 2020 season. His nephew Josiah Kemp’s rise as one of the top prep players in the country has kept him close to the game. 

“Josiah has been playing PG events for two years,” Kemp said. “I’ve been to all his tournaments this summer. But this is the big one, the one everybody wants to go to. He’s been very excited about it.”

Josiah, a 6-1, 185-pound outfielder, is a senior at Choctaw High School in Oklahoma City. He has committed to play at the University of Oklahoma. In Jupiter, he batted leadoff for the San Diego Padres Scout Team 2026. Former big-leaguer Cameron Maybin is one of the team’s coaches.

Matt Kemp has done some coaching with the team, but he was in Jupiter strictly as a supportive uncle and fan. (OK, the 7-handicapper was also hoping to sneak in a round of golf.) He was very impressed by the talent and quality of play at the event.

“These kids are bigger, stronger, faster,” he said. 

Kemp pointed out toward the playing field where Josiah and his teammates were doing sprints before a game.

“That kid right there is going to Miami,” he said. “The kid in red is going to Florida State. That kid running over there is going to Vandy. There’s a lot of special kids at this tournament. They’re way more developed than we were.”

And they get way more exposure as they chase their dreams of playing high-level college ball and beyond. There were 120 teams at the tournament. Hundreds of players were spread out over a dozen fields at the Roger Dean Complex, spring training home of the St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins. The action was constant. Coaches and recruiting coordinators from colleges big and small took in all the action, as did scouts from every major league club. Lots of scouts.

“Fifteen,” one answered when asked how many talent evaluators his team had sent to the event.

That’s the kind of attention a player gets at PG’s WWBA World Championship.

“All the scouts say this is the one you need to be at,” Kemp said. “I’ve never seen this many scouts in one setting. When I was in high school, it wasn’t like this.

“I was talking to some of my boys. I was telling them when I was 16, 17, 18 years old, I would have been really, really nervous to play in these things, but this kind of gives the kids an opportunity to live out their dreams and to be able to play for the school or the team that they dream of playing for.

“It all starts with being seen. All you need is that one person to believe in you. All it takes is one or two good tournaments to put yourself on the map and be able to do special things.”

Matt Kemp did lots of special things in his career. The former outfielder, known mostly for his 10 seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, hit .284 with 287 home runs, 1,031 RBIs and a .821 OPS in 15 seasons. He was runner-up for the National League MVP in 2011 when he hit .324 with 39 homers, 126 RBIs and a .986 OPS. He played in three NL Championship Series with the Dodgers.

Even beyond the high-level competition, Kemp likes Jupiter because it’s a wood-bat tournament and it’s played on grass and dirt, not artificial turf.

“It’s easy to go from dirt to turf, but not easy to go from turf to dirt,” he said. “On a turf field, ground balls are smooth. Running is a little different, too. On dirt, I can generate way more force into the ground than turf. So being here, you can really see what a player has.”

In addition to watching his nephew play in Jupiter – Josiah stroked a couple of doubles in one game – Kemp was able to renew some old acquaintances, including one with an old rival, newly minted Hall of Famer Billy Wagner. Wagner coaches high school ball in Virginia and has coached his sons in PG events for years.

“Billy,” Kemp said with a laugh. “When I faced him in 2006, it was the first time I’d ever seen 100 (mph) from the left side.”

Kemp turned his attention back toward the playing field, where his nephew was about to lead off a game. There was no place he’d rather have been than Jupiter and the big tournament “that everybody wants to go to.”

Plus …

“There’s a lot of cool golf courses here, too.”
 
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