Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig has only been playing professionally in America for less than three years, but he has already managed to become one of the polarizing players in the league. He has crashed into walls, overthrown cut-off men, made ill-advised base-running blunders, shown up late to work on several occasions, and gotten arrested for reckless driving when he was caught driving 110 mph in a 70-mph zone.
In other words, if there is something irresponsible that a Major League Baseball player can do, Puig has probably done it.
According to an article by Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan in late June, Puig’s teammates are fed up and have had enough of his antics. One player even went as far as to say that getting rid of Puig would be “addition by subtraction” per Passan. That revelation led to a flurry of reports about the possibility of Puig being traded; even Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe suggested a Puig-for-Cole Hamels swap.
That is where the story reaches a level of confusion that only Puig could engender.
After the Passan article, it was assumed that Puig was “on the block,” but Jon Heyman of CBS Sports quelled those talks by reporting that the front office had assured the 24-year-old Cuban outfielder that he would not be traded.
However, that might not be the case because Ken Gurnick of MLB.com recently reported that such a meeting never took place and that nobody has told Puig that he will not be traded.
However, on Monday Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweeted that Puig was being offered in trades.
As stated before, this is pretty confusing stuff.
Anyway, should the Dodgers give up on Puig and trade him as soon as possible, or should they remain patient with the 2014 All-Star?
To begin with, his talent is off the charts. He took the league by storm in 2013 when he was called up, hitting .319 with 19 home runs in only 104 games. Puig was the star of the team and was one of the main reasons the Dodgers made it to the playoffs.
He is a legitimate five-tool player. He is a great hitter with plenty of raw power -- although he does not hit as many homers as one might expect -- and a cannon for an arm.
The talent translated into two wonderful seasons in 2013 and 2014. People talk about Puig’s power outage in the second half of 2014 -- when he hit only five home runs after June 1 -- but he still finished the year with a .296 batting average, 19 homers, 37 doubles, nine triples and a terrific 147 wRC+, per FanGraphs.
This year, however, has been a completely different story. Puig has been sidelined with injuries in 2015, and to this point he has played in only 53 games. In addition, he has not been spectacular in his limited playing time either, hitting .253 with six home runs.
When he was made aware of the news that he is indeed on the market, Puig said he did not want to be traded, but he remained positive about the whole situation.
“I’ll play anywhere,” Puig told Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. “I came to the United States [from Cuba] to play baseball. Baseball is the same anywhere. If they want to trade me, that’s their decision. I can’t do anything about that.”
While Puig might not have the power to decide his own fate, it would not be a smart thing to get rid of Puig already. When he is healthy and his swing is right, he has the ability to be one of the best players in all of baseball.
He might have some negative proclivities, and there is certainly some baggage that he brings to the clubhouse and the organization, but the best thing for the Dodgers to do right now is keep Puig. They should let him work out the kinks for the remainder of the season and, hopefully, he will be at his best when the postseason comes around.
In a worst-case scenario, if Puig does not figure it out this year, the Dodgers can shop him this offseason.
However, the best-case scenario is that Puig finds his groove down the stretch and performs at a level that we all know he can. Then, if the club still wants to trade him due to his attitude or personality, his trade value will be higher than ever.
Remember, this is a guy with MVP potential. Nightengale wrote an article this past offseason saying that Puig was ready for an MVP run in 2015.
It did not happen, obviously, but when Puig starts tapping into his wealth of talent, watch out, MLB.
Puig is far too gifted to trade this time of year. The losses far outweigh the gains in this situation, which is why the Dodgers should not trade Yasiel Puig this season.