Column: Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp wants a second chance and is making his case to stay

Camp breaks in a little more than a week and Matt Kemp is still here, which at one time felt about as likely as the Dodgers reappearing on television or Stan Kasten developing a sense of humility.

Kemp’s improbable return to Dodger Stadium in a Dodgers uniform has become entirely conceivable, the 33-year-old crushing baseballs and looking as lean as he did when he was an All-Star.

“I hope so, man,” Kemp said. “I don’t want to go anywhere else.”

Kemp has become the protagonist of the most captivating story in what has otherwise been a relatively uneventful spring for the Dodgers.

Reacquired in an offseason trade with the Atlanta Braves that was basically an accounting trick designed to move the Dodgers under the luxury-tax threshold, Kemp is batting .364 in the exhibition season and leads the team with four home runs.

Kemp remains a trade candidate because of his limitations in left field, but there’s a place in the Dodgers lineup for his bat and there’s certainly a place in Los Angeles for his personality.

He acknowledged he’s counting down the days to opening day and the warm receptions he has received at Camelback Ranch indicate the fans are too.

“I never wanted to leave L.A.,” he said.

Kemp was drafted by the Dodgers, broke into the major leagues with the Dodgers and was a two-time All-Star with the Dodgers. But he was traded to the San Diego Padres before the 2015 season as part of Andrew Friedman’s makeover of the roster, which started a difficult three-year stretch for him.

The Padres were an 88-loss team that season. They traded Kemp the following season to the last-place Atlanta Braves. In Kemp’s two seasons in Atlanta, the Braves lost 93 and 90 games, respectively.

Kemp had a hard time watching the Dodgers in the World Series last year.

“Absolutely, why wouldn’t it be?” he said. “I wanted to be here. I came up as a Dodger. I wanted to win a World Series as a Dodger. They always talked about bringing a World Series to L.A. That’s something that I wanted to do. That’s something I worked hard to try to do. I didn’t get to it. They got close. Why wouldn’t I want to be a part of that?

“I just wanted to be a part of it. I can’t say I wasn’t a little bit jealous.”

Kemp claimed his experiences over the last three years have changed him as a person, that he has returned to the Dodgers with a broader perspective. And for what it’s worth, he appears unaffected by his uncertain future.

“He is in a position that he’s never been in before,” manager Dave Roberts said. “That’s something I know he’s aware of. I don’t know how it’s going to play out, I really don’t. I know that he’s doing everything he can to make our decision a lot tougher.”

His weight ballooned last season with the Braves, something he blamed on hamstring problems that made it hard for him to remain in shape. He spent this winter at his offseason home in Texas and worked out at a nearby training facility owned by former Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson. He reported to camp this year weighing 40 pounds less than he did at the end of last season.

Kemp said he doesn’t have any regrets about the last three years but is bothered by how he returned to the Dodgers with a reputation as a malignant clubhouse presence.

“That’s pretty much the only thing that bothers me about the things people say about me,” he said. “I’ve never been a bad teammate. I’ve never done anything to hurt the team. I’ve probably made a mistake here and there, but I’ve never been a bad teammate. And for those two organizations to say that about me, that sucks because I wasn’t a bad teammate. Maybe I didn’t play the way they wanted me to, but you don’t have to make up things about me to hurt my character.”

He conceded he acted selfishly in his last season with the Dodgers, when he was asked to move from center field to left. Kemp initially refused, prompting then-manager Don Mattingly to bench him.

“That was the only mistake I ever made where they could say, ‘Maybe he wasn’t putting the team ahead of himself,’” he said.

Word of Kemp’s diminished reputation has altered memories of his time with the Dodgers. The former two-time Gold Glover’s limited mobility can be traced back to an ankle injury he sustained in a home-plate collision in 2013.

He should have scored easily from third base on the play in question, a grounder to first base, but didn’t run hard. The sequence changed the trajectory of his career.

“Trust me, there are times I replay that in my brain,” he said.

He didn’t run hard because of a mental lapse, not because he didn’t care. That’s an important distinction. Kemp’s mistakes as a young player were often the byproduct of bad judgment, not a lack of effort.

And, really, the injury that started Kemp’s decline happened a year earlier, when he damaged his left shoulder by crashing into a wall in Colorado at speed. He didn’t have surgery until the end of the season.

“I wanted to try to help my team make the playoffs,” he said.

Now, he wants another chance.

Opening day is March 29. He will learn then if he will be granted one.

dylan.hernandez@latimes.com

Follow Dylan Hernandez on Twitter @dylanohernandez