The Los Angeles Dodgers have set signing Matt Kemp to an extension as one of their top priorities, but GM Ned Colleti said that they won’t put a deadline to get it done Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports.

Kemp’s agent, Dave Stewart, previously said that Opening Day would be the deadline to negotiate a new contract.

“Whenever you have a negotiation, one side’s always got the right to say they’re not doing anything,” said Colletti. “Or two sides have the right to say that, or two sides have the ability to say, ‘Yeah, let’s do something.’ So however that goes, we’ll do what we can do from our side of it. We can’t control the other side no matter who it is.”

Shelburne adds that although Colletti prefers to have all his negotiations done during the winter it isn’t imperative. “I’ve done a handful of deals during a season, but the total number is very small compared to those that have been done in the offseason,” he added. “You take every situation case by case, you never say no to anything.”

Back in September, we learned that the Dodgers uldwo have money to spend this winter.

Stewart said that his “preference” to get Kemp signed before Opening Day is a matter of principle, not strategy according to Shelburne.

“Matt is the guy that I work for, it would be my advice to him to just play and let’s not do any negotiations during the course of the year,” Stewart said. “I’ve been a player and I’ve been in that position before and it’s a distraction. For me, especially in next year’s season, the most important thing is just have Matt concentrate on having another great year. To go out and play. This stuff would be a distraction for him and for the ballclub.”

Kemp hit .324/.399/.586 with 39 HR’s and 129 RBI’s in 602 AB’s for the Dodgers in 2011. He also became the newest member of the 30/30 clubs with his 39 HR’s and 40 stolen bases.

Image by SD Dirk under the Creative Commons License.