Potential Trouble for Yasiel Puig – Will the Dodgers Move Him? And Other Bullets

yasiel puig dodgersGo Blue.

  • It’s been a rough stretch for Yasiel Puig, on and off the field, in and outside of the clubhouse, and it’s going to get worse – he was reportedly involved in a fight at a Miami bar, which in some way involved his sister, which may, in turn, invoke a domestic abuse investigation from MLB. Puig has for a couple years now been the subject of not-always-quiet grumbling behind the scenes from teammates and onlookers about his effort and attitude, but, when he was doing insanely valuable things on the field (on an attractive contract), the Dodgers kind of had to let it all go. Puig, who turns 25 next months, has seen his offensive production drop each year since he debuted in 2013, and he hit just .255/.322/.436 last year in 79 games. He’s to be paid under $25 million total for the next three years, and then he’d have one more arbitration year after that, so, in that regard, he’s still a huge potential bargain. And, given all the other stuff, there’s no way the Dodgers would get huge value for him in trade right now. But will their hand be forced? I think they could still get a reasonably solid return, but they’d face a market where I suspect a handful of teams would flat-out not be involved at any price.
  • (Oh, and if you’re asking: no, without a whole lot more information on not only this latest incident, but on what’s really going on with him behind the scenes in a broader context, I don’t think the Cubs should pursue Puig if he’s made available.)
  • A FanGraphs piece on 2015 offensive outfield performances versus projections includes an interesting revelation about the Cubs: their outfield performance, in the aggregate, was almost exactly what was projected for them. It’s a strange thing when you think about how disappointing Jorge Soler’s overall season was, how Chris Coghlan was solid yet again (despite projections) and how much of a breakout Kyle Schwarber had. Dexter Fowler was just about what was projected, offensively, but everything else for the Cubs was all over the map. But it still landed, ultimately, right where it was projected. That’s mostly a flukey thing, because you can see all of the other teams were off, but that’s what we know about projections: they don’t tell you what WILL happen or even what will PROBABLY happen, they tell you what outcome is at the middle of the curve based on all the information we have available. Stick that in your back pocket for projection season.
  • Signed Jake Arrieta ball on Amazon for $100 (fifty bucks off)? Only 2 left, it looks like (as of the time I typed this). Oh man, and as I poke around, there’s other interesting ones – Kris Bryant for $125, Arrieta/Bryant/Maddon together for $350 (hundred bucks off), and the biggy: the whole team signed a ball for $500. There’s only one of that last one, apparently, and I cannot tell you how hard I’m having to fight myself from clicking the button. Waaaaaant.
  • If you missed it last night, the Blue Jays signed J.A. Happ to a relatively big deal. Earlier this morning, I looked at Jon Lester and tunneling.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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