The Los Angeles Dodgers may not have signed Manny Machado or Bryce Harper, but they were still active over the offseason. In fact, one of their trades was among the most notable of the winter.
The Dodgers traded Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, Alex Wood, Kyle Farmer and cash to the Cincinnati Reds for Homer Bailey, Josiah Gray and Jeter Downs back in December. The move was designed to free up some payroll for the Dodgers and clear up their surplus of outfielders. For Cincinnati, the trade brought them a few legitimate bats to put around Joey Votto, Scooter Gennett, and Eugenio Suarez.
Even in a new city, Puig thinks he will have a positive impact, and he plans to show the Dodgers made a mistake by trading him.
“Now I have to do my part to show that they made a mistake,” Puig told SI’s Jon Tayler in a feature. “I’ll show them what I could have done for them if they’d kept me.”
Puig also believes the Dodgers haven’t added anyone who can do what he can.
“It’s their problem,” Puig says of the Dodgers’ decision to move him. “I don’t know what they did with that trade, because they didn’t get anyone who could help them the way I could. But that’s business.”
I agree with him. Though he’s mostly only batted in the .260s the past few seasons, he has a history of performing in the postseason against the toughest competition. He’s a career .280 hitter with a .780 OPS and 23 RBIs in 58 playoff games. When many players shrink in that spotlight and against the tough pitchers, he often lives up to the moment. The Dodgers will likely miss that, just as he says, especially since he thinks he will be working harder finally.
