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If Yasiel Puig is back, the NL West is in trouble
Friday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the possible resurgence of Yasiel Puig, the Trailerblazer Series, and the NL Central’s five most important players.
Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images
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Yasiel Puig was one of the game’s most exciting and productive players back in 2013 and 2014. Injuries, demotions, rumors that his own team disliked him, and drops in production over the next two years marred his last two seasons with the Dodgers, though. Now 26, Los Angeles has him starting in their outfield once again, and so far, it’s paying off: Puig is batting .417/.563/1.250 with three homers and four walks to begin the season, both of the latter of which lead the National League. We’re literally just days into the season, but this is a start that should terrify the rest of the NL West.
The Dodgers won 91 games and the NL West in 2016 with Puig playing in just 104 games, racking up 368 plate appearances, and producing a league-average line. If the old Puig is back, the one who was a five-win player according to wins above replacement in consecutive seasons, the Dodgers are a much more potent opponent. The Padres and Diamondbacks already didn’t stand a chance, but the top version of Puig would be bad news for the hopeful Rockies, and could be what ends up separating the Dodgers and Giants in the standings at year’s end.
However, let’s dial it back a bit. It’s April 7, and the Dodgers have played four games. Puig has played in all of them, and he’s been brilliant, but again: four games. There is nothing definitive to say that Puig is back, but the idea that he could be feels more real today than it did at any point in 2016. Tacking this on to his September, in which he slugged .561 to put a successful finish on an otherwise unappealing season, and maybe there is something here. We’ll just need more than four games to find out if the rest of the NL West is going to stay terrified of a Puig-led Dodgers’ lineup.
- Sometimes, all it takes is one player failing or thriving to doom or push a team. These are the five players in the NL Central with that kind of importance to their club.
- Listen, we have our fun teasing the whole Tim Tebow Baseball experience. So, similarly, we kind of have to point out when he does something cool. Like, say, hits a home run in his first minor-league at-bat of the season.
- Bill Murray tried to bribe umpires on his minor league team’s Opening Day.
- In the spirit of Jackie Robinson Day, MLB is promoting women’s baseball in the Trailblazer Series at the MLB Youth Academy from April 13 through 15.
- Yadier Molina got a baseball stuck to his chest protector, and it’s somehow weirder than it sounds.
- Arizona Cardinals’ running back David Johnson threw out the first pitch for the D-Backs, and, well, he should probably stick to football.
- The Make-A-Wish Foundation and the Red Sox turned this kid’s backyard into a replica of Fenway Park.
- The Cardinals probably shouldn’t extend Lance Lynn, not with the young arms they have coming up.
- Here’s Meg Rowley on why it should be faces of baseball, not face of baseball, anyway.
- The Astros’ pitching is their uncomfortably large question mark in 2017, but Jeff Sullivan presents multiple reasons to believe they’ll be just fine.
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