There is no denying that Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig is one of the most talented players in Major League Baseball. Last season Puig joined the Dodgers on June 2 and he helped the team turn things around. At the time the Dodgers were 23-31 and the 2013 MLB season appeared to be slipping away from them. The Dodgers would finish the regular season with a record of 92-70 and in the process they won their first National League Western Division Title since 2009. In just 104 games last season with the Dodgers, Puig had a .319 batting average to go along with 19 home runs and 42 runs batted in. Puig’s 2013 campaign saw him finish second in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting as he set the baseball world on fire. Right now the world is the oyster of Puig, but does the 23-year old native of Cuba fully grasp it?
In his brief time with the Dodgers, Puig has consistently missed the cutoff man on his throws from the outfield. Puig has also made base running blunders which includes him not hustling out of the batter’s box. Instead of Puig hustling out of the batter’s box and ending up on second or possibly third base, he will find himself on first base where he will then draw the ire of Dodgers first base coach Davey Lopes. Puig’s lack of discipline on the baseball diamond has also gotten the attention of Dodgers manager Don Mattingly too often. Last season Puig was benched by Mattingly several times for disciplinary reasons and he hasn’t gotten off on the right foot in 2014.
When the Dodgers kicked off the MLB season last month against the Arizona Diamondbacks down in Australia, Puig once again became a lightning rod for controversy. Puig went out and made more base running blunders which led to a heated exchange with Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez. Mattingly also criticized Puig and his litany of “injuries” as the skipper feels that the youngster always has a laundry list of alleged ailments.
Yesterday the Dodgers had their regular season home opener against the San Francisco Giants, but Puig was not in the starting lineup. Mattingly benched Puig as a result of him being late for the Dodgers batting practice. The Dodgers could have used him in the lineup as they lost to the Giants 8-4. But Puig’s lack of discipline is not just relegated to the baseball diamond.
Last April, Puig was cited for reckless driving in Chattanooga, Tennessee for speeding as he was doing 97 mph and in a 50 mph zone. This past December, Puig was arrested in Naples, Florida for speeding once again. This time Puig was doing 110 mph in a 70 mph zone.
For Puig he signed a seven-year, $42 million deal with the Dodgers back in 2012 and things have just come so easy for him that I do not feel that he has yet to grasp the importance of everything around him. Unlike most MLB players Puig really didn’t have to toil in the minor leagues for a long time and he never really had to pay his dues. With the Dodgers playing in Los Angeles and Hollywood in the backdrop, the media ran with Puig’s outstanding rookie campaign and the youngster appears to be believing his own press clippings.
The Dodgers organization appears to be at the crossroads with Puig. Mattingly is an old-school, no-nonsense type of manager and he has surrounded himself with men like that on his coaching staff in Lopes, hitting coach Mark McGwire, and bench coach Tim Wallach. But the manager and coaches alone will not be enough to keep Puig in line as he also needs to hear it from his peers. Gonzalez has started to get on the case of Puig, but that should just be the beginning and he should not be the only player on the Dodgers roster that holds the youngster accountable. The Dodgers have as much talent as any team in Major League Baseball and therefore they are one of the favorites to win this year’s World Series. Puig is flashy, but he is not helping the Dodgers to win ballgames if he is being benched by Mattingly. It also won’t be fun for Puig if his antics cost the Dodgers a big game and he has to hear about it from the media in Los Angeles who are always looking for a story to run with.
Puig has all of the talent in the world, but there isn’t a player that is bigger than the team. It is time Puig to realize that and fall in line.
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