Puig’s extraordinary route to big leagues shouldn’t be repeated
By Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
Iconfess I’m not a big fan of Yasiel Puig, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ talented, charismatic and controversial right fielder.
Like every other baseball watcher, I can’t takemy eyes off Puig when he’s at the plate, roaring around the bases like a Ferrari or making Roberto Clemente-like throws from the outfield. But Puig’s me-first, team-second showmanship and his carelessness have rubbed me the wrong way.
Then I read the two mesmerizing stories that came out last week, one by Jesse Katz in Los Angeles Magazine, the other by ESPN TheMagazine’s Scott Eden. They graphically depict Puig’s journey from Cuba to Mexico to the United States and ultimately to his seven-year, $42 million contract with the Dodgers. If you haven’t read the stories, you should. It will change your view of the 23-year-old phenom.
Puig said last year that the story of his defection from Cuba would be made into a movie someday. He wasn’t kidding. According to a fivemonth investigation by ESPN, the outfielder has received death threats from the human traffickers who arranged for his defection to Mexico in 2012.
The gritty details of Puig’s harrowing defection include a ride aboard a tiny speed boat through the Caribbean, Puig wading ashore through crocodile-infested waters and being held captive by aMexican-based trafficking ring on an island off the coast of Cancun as it awaited a $400,000 payment from a small-time crook in Miami named Raul Pacheco.
“I don’t know if you could call it a kidnapping,” boxer Yunior Despaigne, Puig’s friend since high school and one of three people who defected with Puig, told Los Ange- les Magazine, “because we had gone there voluntarily, but we also weren’t free to leave. If they didn’t receive the money, they were saying that at any moment they might give him a machetazo (hit Puig with a machete), chop off an arm, a finger, whatever, and he would never play baseball again, not for anyone.”
Yet Puig might not just be an innocent victim here, either.
There’s a federal lawsuit against Puig inwhich aman jailed in Cuba claims Puig falsely accused him of human trafficking in order to gain favorwith Cuban authorities and rejoin Cuba’s national baseball team. Through his lawyers, Puig has denied the man’s claims and is seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed.
Despaigne, however, claims in an affidavit that Puig was responsible for several human trafficker arrests in Cuba. Despaigne said he thinks Puig was doing whatever it took to play baseball.
This is a sordid, complicated story filled with dirty money and double-crosses.
“This is human trafficking as best as I can tell,” Katz told CBS News. “I think on this end, Major League Baseball, the Dodgers, the U.S. government, doesn’t really want to know about what he went through and what he suffered to get here.”
It’s hard to tell whether Puig is a hero or a victim, or maybe even an opportunist. But one thing is sure: MLB commissioner Bud Selig needs to investigate what happened and figure out steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
The “Kung Fu Panda” is in a contract year, and he’s struggling in the early going. Sandovalwanted the Giants to give him a five-year dealworth $90 million. The club countered with a three-year, $40 million offer last month that Sandoval quickly declined. The two sides are at an impasse, andwhile it’s tough to tell if money is at the root of Sandoval’s slowstart, it can’t be discounted.
Sandoval slimmed down considerably during the offseason, hoping to become amore nifty fielder at the hot corner. But so far, a changed body hasn’t done much good. He entered Saturday hitting just .179 (12-for67) with an on-base percentage of .267. That’s not good for a three-hole hitter. His fielding has been suspect, too, with three errors in 51 chances (.941 fielding percentage).
San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy has said he’s thinking about dropping Sandoval down in the order to take some of the pressure off. But chances are, “Panda” will come out of his slump in a big way. Remember the 2012World Series when he hit three homers in the opener against the Detroit Tigers and was named MVP after hitting .500 with four RBIs in 16 Series atbats? Sandoval has not wrecked the Rockies at Coors Field, hitting .245 with eight homers in 40 games, but he’s always dangerous. Though Sandoval seems older, he’s only 27, and there’s a lot of baseball ahead of him. But is he worth $90 million for five years? I don’t think so.