They were unable to move him ahead of the non-waiver deadline. He finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting that fall and 15th in the MVP vote.
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Puig has two years and $14 million left on his contract after this season. His power is down, with just seven home-runs, his contact is down, batting.260, and the Dodgers are starting to consider all of their options. He seems a fairly complicated guy with an extraordinarily complicated backstory, but he also seems more likely to help the on-field Dodgers through the stretch run than several other players on the roster, even after the addition of outfielder Josh Reddick via trade on Monday.
A herniated disc landed Clayton Kershaw on the disabled list last month, and the Dodgers have responded with the National League’s best record during that time at 18-10. Trades like these are rare, but the Dodgers were able to make one a year ago when they acquired Chase Utley from the Philadelphia Phillies.
Maybe they’ll use the tandem of outfielders to their advantage, or maybe they’ll send Puig to the minors, where he’ll have to earn his way back to The Show. The perspective of Puig around baseball was a real life Ricky Vaughn, a wild child. Puig, having put in more than three years of Major League Baseball service time, will have the right to opt into arbitration in the final two years of his contract – those arbitration-determined salaries that could fall anywhere. In 2013, Los Angeles may not of even thought of the idea of replacing Puig in right field, but now they are.
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Reddick will wear number 11 for the Dodgers, Hill is number 44, and Chavez will wear 58. The biggest news was a trade they did not make. But Puig’s agent corrected Rosenthal, telling him that Puig already knew not to arrive for the team’s road trip to play the Rockies on Monday and so there was no reason from his client to storm off. But Puig was never at the ballpark with his teammates. He played in just 79 games in 2015 and has missed 24 of the Dodgers’ 105 games thus far this season headed into Monday night. Puig has a big salary, so he’d be somewhat hard to deal, but he’s a productive player at worst and an MVP candidate if he’s healthy and focused.
