His numbers have dropped off considerably over the last two years, though.
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Therefore, with no roster spot open, the Dodgers will send him down to Oklahoma City where he will have to sort things out so he can earn his call-up later if at all. The former Cuban defector made good on his promise that first major league season. He set a NL record for home runs by a rookie shortstop with 27 and was on pace to surpass Nomar Garciaparra’s record of 30 set with Boston in 1997.
Yasiel Puig is still a Dodger, though he did not fly with the Dodgers to Colorado for today’s game. At this point it would be shocking if he ever dons a Dodgers uniform again.
But Puig is still just 25 years old, with plenty of upside if he can get his head back in the game. Far from it. The Puig-Mattingly relationship fractured and team acceptance of the outfielder seemed rocky leading into news this offseason that outfielder Scott Van Slyke may or may not have told his father, former player Andy Van Slyke, that Clayton Kershaw preferred that Puig was traded.
Media portrayals from his rookie season depicted Puig as the personification of the American Dream. Puig is hitting.260 in 81 games this year, but after sitting out with a hamstring injury to start June, Puig has hit.308 since his return to the lineup while going 3-for-5 in Sunday’s game against the Diamondbacks. The Dodgers also acquired Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto from the Boston Red Sox in August 2012 after each was placed on waivers. The Los Angeles Dodgers could not have been more happy about the results Puig gave them. Trades like these are rare, but the Dodgers were able to make one previous year when they acquired Chase Utley from the Philadelphia Phillies. While those dreams will have to be put on hold for a while, I’ll never stop believing in Puig, if only because I don’t want to live in a world where he’s not allowed to be the most exciting baseball player on the planet. He threw 17 pitches in one inning, allowing one hit.
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Another possibility holds that the Dodgers can place Puig on waivers and trade him to a claiming team, or to any team if he goes unclaimed. Could teams looking for position players, such as the Cleveland Indians, be keeping an eye on the Puig situation?
