March 27th, 2013 at 6:00 am 
by Ron Cervenka This will be short and sweet because we’re all tired of hearing and reading about it.
In a nutshell, Ned Colletti and Don Mattingly decided on Tuesday to send Yasiel Puig, the closest thing to “The Natural” to come along in two decades (or perhaps ever), down to Double-A Chattanooga because, as Mattingly tried to humorously put it, “…I look at Yasiel like a Ferrari. The motor is there, the body is there, the wheels are there, but you just haven’t painted it yet…”
Yasiel Puig is the closest thing to The Natural that I have ever seen.
(Photo credit – Christian Petersen)
And while I appreciate Mattingly’s Ferrari metaphor, it’s not the real reason why he and Colletti sent perhaps the best player to ever wear a Dodger uniform down to the minor leagues. The real reason is money – the multi-million dollar corner that the Guggenheim Baseball Management Group has painted itself into. Simply put, the best player on the team will not be on the opening day roster or perhaps even on the August 31 roster because of the combined $53.5 million owed to Carl Crawford, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier this season.
Don’t get me wrong, an outfield of Crawford, Kemp and Ethier is an All-Star caliber outfield and one that will undoubtedly be feared by opposing teams, but are these the three best outfielders in the Dodger organization or is one of them on his way to Chattanooga? In all honesty, I cannot answer this question.
Perhaps Carl Crawford will prove to be better than Puig. Perhaps Yasiel’s “Roy Hobbs” performance during spring training was indeed an anomaly, as Mattingly and Colletti would have us believe. Both are quick to point out that Puig has had a total of only 139 professional at-bats, but who are they really trying to convince? Granted, Puig had only 30 at-bats with the Rookie League Dodgers, 52 at-bats with the Advanced Single-A Quakes, and 57 at-bats during spring training with the Dodgers, but he absolutely soared at each of these levels with batting averages of .400, .327 and .526 respectively. Who does that?
Robert Redford portrayed Roy Hobbs in the movie, but Yasiel Puig portrayed Yasiel Puig in real life.
(Photo courtesy of Tri-Star Pictures)
What it all means is that, barring an unforeseen trade, an injury or a complete meltdown by Crawford, Kemp or Ethier, it is quite possible that we may not see Puig in a Dodger uniform again until September 1, regardless of how well he may do in the minors.
Being realistic, I never really expected Puig to have a chance at making the opening day roster unless Crawford suffered some type of setback from his Tommy John surgery which, of course, he did not. Then again, I also never expected to see what is arguably the greatest individual spring training performance perhaps ever and most certainly in my lifetime. But the truth of the matter is that no matter what Puig did and no matter what kind of numbers he put up, it would never be enough because the 2013 Dodger outfield was already cast in stone months ago – August 25, 2012 to be exact. Yasiel Puig never had a chance – period.
But this situation is not over for Dodger management, not by any means. In fact, it has only just begun and the hard part is yet to come. The hard part is, of course, creating a position for Puig and there is only one way to do that – somebody has to go. It’s a pretty safe bet that Kemp isn’t going anywhere, so that leaves Crawford or Ethier, and I will let you draw your own conclusions.
Godspeed to you Yasiel, and thank you for some of the most exciting baseball memories of my life – and the best yet to come.
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@Think_BlueLA My response to this is…a Harang face. :——(
As I have mentioned before, when the Dodgers were putting out all that money, there would be a price to pay. That is, it would be hard to move players without paying them to play elsewhere as the Angels did with Vernon Wells. I hate that. I can’t be convinced that Matt Guerrier is better than Shawn Tolleson. Matt will have to prove it which he hasn’t been able to do for two years.
Still, the outfield situation is a good one to have. I know Matingley wants a RH corner outfielder with Crawford and Ethier both lefties, as well as 1B Gonzalez.
Obviously Puig has to come down to earth and it will be interesting to see at which level he settles. The anticipation is, to say the least, exciting. We pretty much knew it would come to this conclusion. I did read Puig might get to the Freeway series. I don’t understand the service years concern as he has a seven year contract.
As I understand it, Puig has an escape clause in his contract that allows him to become arbitration eligible after three years. I would imagine that this will not even come into play if he plays at the level that we believe he will, as the Dodgers would undoubtedly offer him a contract extension well before then, much like the Rays did with Longoria and the Rockies with Tulowitzki.
My thought is that if the Dodgers aren’t willing to park their “Ferrari” at Dodger Stadium on April 1, why would they do so for three “meaningless” exhibition games and run the risk of denting it’s fender, thus forcing Puig on the MLB DL and starting his MLB service time clock for no good reason?
Don’t get me wrong – I’d love to see Yasiel at the Rancho game, but with the table now set by Colletti and Mattingly, why risk it?
Fear not; Ken Rosenthal offers us reasons why…
https://thinkbluela.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7669
It’s not really ‘fair well’. More like, ‘see you soon’. Let the team we have fail before we start looking to point fingers. If they don’t have the division under control after a month they can make a change. Case in point; Mike Trout last year. The Angels team looked great in paper but just wasn’t outing up the Ws so they brought him up.
I think we all remember how it went from there.
I think we are all a bit gunshy after last years collapse. I know we want wins and losses in April are just as bad as I’m September but lets try and keep one thing in mind here; This team, as constructed, should be successful. Unless Puig puts on a little glove and plays infield there isn’t a spot for him LA…yet. Let Ethier and Crawford lose their spot before you take it away from them. If Puig is killing it in AA-AAA and either on of them isn’t, then at that point a change can be made and no one can second guess the decision.
I much prefer this year’s problems to those of the past G-d knows how many! Even with the injuries we’re operating from a position of strength for a change.
+1 Dick