Puig

[Islandboagie]

Inside the Los Angeles Dodgers' clubhouse, the contempt some teammates hold for outfielder Yasiel Puig is no longer a secret limited to whispers. They discuss it openly, resigned to the fact that the Dodgers don't plan to trade their mega-talented right fielder no matter how deep the animus runs.


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"We've talked about this," one Dodgers player told Yahoo Sports. "At this point, it would be addition by subtraction."
Stories of Puig's ability to infuriate teammates have percolated through baseball since he shot to fame as a rookie in 2013 and cemented himself last season as one of baseball's greatest talents. Now, in "The Best Team Money Can Buy," a fascinating new book that explores the inner workings of the Dodgers' clubhouse, author Molly Knight delivers anecdote after Puig anecdote that illuminates what makes him so off-putting to so many.

The idea of trading Puig – a notion the Dodgers have never seriously entertained, according to sources – comes down to a simple question: Would Los Angeles really be better without him? And even if some players believe that might be the case, none of the past incidents have convinced the Dodgers that Puig's harm today goes beyond occasional annoyance.

While some issues, like his habitual tardiness for games, have abated this year, according to sources, Puig's work ethic in batting practice and the weight room continue to bother some teammates. Much of the hostility stems from a general sense of entitlement shown by the 24-year-old. During spring training this year, as Knight writes and multiple sources confirmed to Yahoo Sports, Puig argued with teammates over who should be allowed on a plane ride that typically includes wives and girlfriends. The subject of someone from Puig's entourage joining the traveling crew came up, and sources told Yahoo Sports that Puig argued with pitcher Zack Greinke and nearly came to blows with infielder Justin Turner over the matter.

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Greinke, the National League ERA leader and one of the game's best pitchers, was at the center of another memorable Puig moment related in Knight's book. In 2014, during the Dodgers' annual trip to Chicago, the team bus stopped downtown to allow rookies undergoing hazing to walk into a pizza place and emerge with food for the veterans. Some Dodgers players, not wanting to wait, skipped off the bus. When the bus was ready to leave, Puig was outside, looking for his luggage inside of the bay underneath the bus. After Puig ignored multiple requests to close the luggage bay, Greinke hopped off the bus, grabbed the suitcase in front of Puig and chucked it onto Michigan Avenue. Puig stepped toward Greinke and was restrained by reliever J.P. Howell.
Word of the incident spread quickly, those there giddily recounting it to those who got off the bus, and highlighted the chasm between Puig and his teammates.

Puig's reputation preceded his time with the Dodgers. During spring training 2013, Mitch Poole, the Dodgers' longtime clubhouse manager, assigned Puig's jersey number on a lark. "I thought it'd be funny to give him number 66 to reference 666, like he was Diablo," Poole told Knight. During the spring, Puig cottoned to the number and asked to keep it because he thought it was good luck.

Upon his debut, Puig already made teammates wary by engaging in a relationship with a minor league coach's daughter. His inability to show up on time was another constant problem. Puig was chided by veteran Skip Schumaker during his rookie season for coming to the stadium 20 minutes after he was expected to arrive. Manager Don Mattingly benched Puig opening day when he was nearly an hour late.

How Puig's on-field impact (he's hitting .289/.382/.465 this season) meshes with the off-the-field issues will remain a constant question for the Dodgers until the latter vanishes or the former wanes. The Dodgers have gone out of their way to help Puig, according to Knight's book, assigning a private security firm to watch over him because of threats from the drug cartel that smuggled him to Mexico from Cuba. The organization is constantly trying to balance assuaging Puig while not showing him preferential treatment, aware his value to the team goes beyond his statistics. As Knight wrote: "Whatever Puig's issues were, he was one of the best players in the game, he sold tickets, and he was relatively cheap."

The players recognize as much. When the player who posed the addition-by-subtraction question reconsidered his thought, he told Yahoo Sports: "That's the biggest Catch-22. He's a top three or four talent in baseball."

And that hasn't changed. As much as Puig might slack in preparation, he continues to play the game at an unmatched level, his dynamism unfettered. Sometimes it's great, and sometimes it's laughable, and always it's exciting, and in a baseball culture that appreciates the steadiness necessary to survive its long season, Puig's ebbs and flows can be off-putting.

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.Yasiel Puig's production makes shipping him out a no-go right now. (Getty)
This is Puig's third season. His first two ended with the Dodgers playing in the postseason, and another October looks nigh. Among their monstrous payroll, frontline farm system, deep scouting group and unmatched analytical power, they are the sort of team that could reel off multiple championships in the next five years. Puig is signed through 2018, and as he enters his prime, teammates wonder whether he'll change.
"You guys tell me how you want me to play," Puig said during a meeting last year, according to Knight's book, and a few teammates spoke up, including then-Dodgers shortstop Hanley Ramirez, who said: "I just don't want your career to go the way my career went. All my teammates hated me because of the way I played."

The distaste for Puig is palpable, some of it fresh, some still festering from the past. It's real, though, and the Dodgers know at the very least they need to monitor it so it doesn't devolve into the scenario where they might actually be better without someone so good.

[Islandboagie]

Not surprising that his teammates dislike him. What does surprise me is so many in the media portray him as if he's the best player in the game. He's far from it. He has yet to put up big numbers, and he consistently makes stupid plays in the field. That's part of the problem, he's being treated like a superstar before he's actually proven to be one.

[rxmeister]

Except for the lateness, those incidents all seem minor to me and they seem to indicate the lateness problem is no longer an issue, Puig was looking for his luggage? When did that become a heinous crime? A relationship with a coach's daughter? There was no indication here that she was underage, therefore why do they care? And telling them in a meeting that he wants them to tell him how he should play tells me he's trying to improve. Sounds like he's a kid who made a couple of mistakes, but the real jerks are his teammates.

[klaiggeb]

Mark I could NOT disagree more.

I don't see the infractions as minor. Instead, I see them as divisive; the actions of a Millenial; the actions of a player who doesn't get the TEAM concept.

You rarely, if ever, hear of DODGER teammates not happy with one of their own. That they are willing to voice it rings of more problems that we don't know about.


Heinous crime looking for his luggage it is not.

What it IS, is an indicator that he thinks he's special. That HE deserves better treatment than the others on the team; That it's all about HIM.

And the other players care because they see the damage ALL of his actions are causing the team.

Puig is a great talent. A great talent!


But all of that talent is wasted when his teammates are going one way, and he's going the other.


Personally, I hope the Dodgers KEEP him!

He's a cancer destroying that team from within.

boly

[Islandboagie]

I actually agree with Mark's point about the other infractions not being a huge deal. But when you add showing up late, the reports that he is very lazy about his workouts, and the constant butting heads with teammates and Don Mattingly, he's nothing short of a clubhouse cancer. In fact, his antics are the exact definition of a clubhouse cancer. That's why Greinke tossed his bag in the street, that's why his antics have nearly come to blows with teammates. It's not one or two stories that make Puig a cancer, it's the full body of disrespect, entitlement, and putting his own ego first.

[sfgdood]

my general reaction to this is who the F cares? It's not our team. I'll only add this...I put very little stock in anonymous quotes

[Islandboagie]

Normally when I don't care about a topic, I don't comment on it. Just saying.

[klaiggeb]

It's not that I disagree about his infractions being relatively small... the problem I have with them, and the problem I WOULD HAVE WITH THEM if I was a Dodger player... is the quantity of them. Way too many.


And I'm just guessing here but IMHO, what the players pointed out are just the "obvious" things; stuff a writer who is traveling with the team would see.

I contend one has to read between the lines; What the players "said" is just the tip of the iceberg; that there is more stuff going on we DON'T know about, and that they as a whole, are sick up and fed with his Millenial-mememememe attitude and the way he's being treated as a prima dona, which he what HE thinks he is; special.

boly

[Rog]

The Dodgers may not have the best chemistry, but the physics of the situation are that they are five games ahead of the Giants.

[Rog]

By the way, if Greinke threw Puig's bag onto Michigan Avenue, it would seem he was as big a problem as Puig. No doubt he was provoked, but what a jerk. Then again, baseball is in the dark ages when it comes to acceptable behavior.

Football players kill people. Basketball players act as if they're above the law. And baseball players are simply fools.

These are huge generalities, but it is sad that many athletes haven't been exposed to the real world, or ignore it if they have.

[Islandboagie]

I disagree, in football and basketball bad behavior is accepted. In baseball it's really not. That's why the Puig article got a lot of negative media attention the next day. I think baseball and the fans do a good job of recognizing the jerks and admiring the good guys. Because of that, we see a lot more superstars in baseball that are very talented on the field and decent people off the field. Of course, there are a few exceptions. Puig being one of the few.

[rxmeister]

The article said that Puig has been better about his lateness this year. If he's coming on time now, they made their point and should get off his case. It really sounds to me like they're ganging up on him.

[Islandboagie]

Maybe he's been better of late because they've stayed on his case.

I doubt the Dodgers are giving him the 'Full Metal Jacket' treatment. The Dodgers aren't slipping into his hotel room in the middle of the night and beating him with bar soap. Don Mattingly isn't Gunnery Sgt. Hartman. From what it sounds like, they're trying to help him by reasoning with him, and in some cases he's choosing to ignore their advice. Because of that, some players now have some animosity towards his stupid behavior, and rightfully so. It's not those other player's fault. It's Puig's fault. If Puig wants to get back in good graces with his teammates then it's up to him to make a change, and heal some of those wounds.

[Rog]

The issue with baseball is its culture, as is illustrated by what is essentially rookie hazing. And then there is the baseball "book," which is unwritten and thus is far too often misunderstood. When they say baseball is a kids' game, that can be taken in several different ways.

Meanwhile, baseball is doing just fine financially, but it is being overtaken and caught up to by other sports.