Los Angeles Dodgers: Five Potential Trade Destinations for Yasiel Puig

With the days of Puig-mania long past and lots of big contracts on the books the Los Angeles Dodgers are looking to move their once prized right fielder, and it’s pretty likely they’ll be able to find some takers.

The MLB Winter Meetings have wrapped up, but that doesn’t mean the stove is cooling off. One transaction that seems likely to happen soon is the trade of Yasiel Puig from the Dodgers; according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com Puig and fellow outfielder Matt Kemp are on the trading block, and being actively shopped:

Both men are in their walk years next year, and Puig will probably be the easier to move of the two. Kemp, who will be 35 next season, had a bit of a resurgence in the first half of 2018, slashing .310/.352/.522 going into the all star break, but he fell off a little in the second half, most due to a rough August where he slashed .214/.291/.286. All in all Kemp had a decent season, but he’s also due $21.5 million next year, so it would be kind of hard to justify picking him up unless the Dodgers offered to take on a lot of the contract. These moves are looking to be salary dumps, so that seems very unlikely.

This leaves us with Puig, who is one of the league’s most intriguing players. Beyond the lovable personality and emotional flair that’s well displayed in MLB’s “Let the Kids Play” promo Puig is notable for some statistical anomalies. Puig bats right handed, but when evaluating where he might fit on another MLB roster you should actually think of him as if he batted from the other side of the plate; most batters excel when facing a pitcher of opposite handiness, but Puig does the opposite. In 2018 he had an OPS of .982 versus right handed pitchers, and an OPS of .628 against southpaws.

When Puig first burst onto the scene in 2013 he came on extremely strong, and after his first two seasons it seemed like he might develop into a perennial all star. So far, this hasn’t happened. He’s regressed statistically every year for his first four years in the league, causing some to question if what they thought they saw early on was legit. Puig, who will be 28 next season still has time to prove these doubters wrong, and he’s shown improvement over the past two seasons. Next year will be super important for him due to his impending free agency, which is a motivation many teams will want to capitalize on.

Last year Puig made $7.5 million and he’s arbitration eligible this year so his pay will likely go up slightly. His contract for next year won’t be enough to scare every team a way, but it will limit his market a bit, and only teams that are pretty confident in him will likely take on the risk. Let’s look at a few who could be contenders.