While Yasiel Puig’s standing with the Los Angeles Dodgers appeared on shaky ground last August, he reported to Spring Training as the favorite to win the starting job in right field. Puig hoped for as much to be true, expressing a desire to be an everyday player in Los Angeles or with another team.
The storylines surrounding the 26-year-old remain the same. Puig’s focus is on being a positive teammate and presence in the clubhouse while producing at the level he did as rookie in 2013. He shed weight for a second consecutive offseason, at the Dodgers’ instruction.
Puig was scheduled to start in right field on Friday but was scratched from the lineup a second time in the past five days.
However, whereas Monday he was removed due to calf tightness, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained Puig was scratched against the Arizona Diamondbacks because of additional hitting after the morning workout, via Bill Plunkett of the O.C. Register:
“He did some extra work after the (morning) workout and just kept going and going,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the decision to take Puig out of the lineup. “He took a ton of swings. I liked the work. Turner (Ward, hitting coach) liked the work.”
Entering Saturday, Puig is batting .250/.325/.556 with two doubles, three home runs and seven RBI in 36 at-bats over 13 Cactus League games. He’s in the lineup against the Oakland Athletics.
There have been glimpses of an improved focus and approach at the plate, but also the same bad habits that have plagued him over the past two seasons.
Such was the case Thursday in back-to-back at-bats, when Puig worked a lengthy at-bat to hit an RBI single, then swung at multiple pitches well out of the zone in his next trip to the plate.
No matter, the Dodgers are on track to open the regular season with Puig as their starting right fielder. Roberts has acknowledged the team is in a better position when the dynamic talent is in the lineup. It’s unclear whether the Dodgers will look to platoon Puig, as they did once he returned last season from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
