The 2015 MLB trade deadline has officially gone supernova with several name-brand talents such as Scott Kazmir, Johnny Cueto, and Troy Tulowitzki being sent on the move. Now one player that could join the migration is Yasiel Puig of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today broke the news on Twitter Monday night that the Dodgers have made the volatile outfielder available in trade talks, provided that the return is right.
As has been the case with the Dodgers for many seasons now, the team has a surplus of quality players in the outfield. With the meteoric rise of Joc Pederson, Carl Crawford’s return from injury, and Alexander Guerrero waiting in the wings, the argument could theoretically be made that Puig has become borderline expendable.
The talent Cuban is highly regarded as a five-tool player but has struggled with maturity issues early on his Major League career. To his credit though, he has kept out of the headlines in 2015 by cutting down on the bat flips, anti-media tirades, and punctuality issues. But now Puig has been unable to keep out of the trainer’s room with injuries limiting him to just 53 games so far this season, by far the worst of his young career.
Puig has been ineffective in the games he has been in the lineup, sporting a pedestrian .253/.327/.423 slash line. He has only hit six home runs and stolen one base this year, while his strikeouts have been on the rise and his 111 wRC+ is barely above league average.
I don’t anticipate Puig being traded, however. His value is at an all-time low right now and as Nightengale notes, the Dodgers are generating significantly more interest in their stacked farm system. An outfielder like Andre Ethier seems like a much likelier candidate to be traded and the team has reportedly assured Puig in days passed that he won’t be shipped away. It’s quite possible that the Dodgers are leaking this to the media to gauge Puig’s trade value with the full intention being to keep Puig in Los Angeles through 2015 and beyond. There’s simply too much talent for them to pull the plug on him.
*Stats courtesy of Fangraphs*
