There’s only one highest-paid player on the Dodgers and if you’re not familiar with who that is, simply go to Cot’s Baseball Contracts and voilà – there it is in black and white. That player is, of course, Dodgers left-hander Clayton Kershaw who, on January 14, 2014, signed a seven-year / $215 million contract extension with the Dodgers that will take him through the 2020 season (if he doesn’t opt out – à la Zack Greinke – after the 2018 season, that is).

So when former 13-year major leaguer and recently fired Seattle Mariners first base coach Andy Van Slyke said live, on-the air, on St. Louis’ CBS Sports Radio 920 AM on Thursday that “the highest paid player on the Los Angeles Dodgers” had complained to the team’s general manager that controversial outfielder Yasiel Puig needed to go, there was absolutely zero – zip, zilch, nada – doubt who Andy Van Slyke was talking about.

“This is just between you and I,” Andy Van Slyke told 920 AM radio host Frank Cusumano. “When the best player – the highest paid player on the Los Angeles Dodgers – goes to the GM and … is asked what are [the needs of the Los Angeles Dodgers], this particular highest-paid player said, ‘The first thing you need to do is get rid of Puig.’ That’s all you need to know.”

Seriously? “Just between you and I” while live on a live sportstalk radio show (at the two-minute mark)? Are you kidding me? Not only did Andy Van Slyke trash Yasiel Puig, he threw three-time NL Cy Young award winner and 2014 NL MVP Clayton Kershaw and his very own son – 29-year-old Dodgers utility outfielder / first baseman Scott Van Slyke – under the bus and, in all likelihood, destroyed his own chances of ever working in major league baseball again.

Remember that feel-good night when Scott and Andy Van Slyke were sent out by their respective managers to exchange line-up cards on April 14, 2015? Yeah well you can forget about that now, as the elder Van Slyke may have just ended his son’s career with the Dodgers. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Fifty-four-year-old Andy Van Slyke was let go by the Mariners when manager Lloyd McClendon was fired on October 9 and replaced with Scott Servais – this after Andy spent all of 2014 and part of 2015 as the Mariners’ first-base and outfielder coach. He played for 13 seasons in the big leagues with the Pirates, Cardinals, Orioles and Phillies, during which he was a three-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner. So it’s not like he wasn’t aware that what’s said in the clubhouse stays in the clubhouse and should absolutely never be aired out in the media.

Because Andy has had virtually no contact with Puig since the soon-to-be 25-year-old Cuban defector made his MLB debut with the Dodgers on June 3, 2013, there is only one way that the senior Van Slyke could have learned that Puig was a problem child in the Dodgers clubhouse – from his son Scott who apparently ratted him out. And while you would certainly expect that whatever Scott says to his father would be held in utmost confidence, violating this trust suggests that Andy put his own future goals as a baseball expert / analyst ahead of his son’s major league baseball career.

Although it’s hard to blame Scott for his father’s indiscretion and violation of trust, Andy’s irresponsible comments could very well spell doom for his son’s future with the Dodgers. It has been well documented that Clayton and Scott are close friends both on and off the field and share in their very strong Christian beliefs. However, one has to believe that Kershaw (and everyone else in the Dodgers clubhouse for that matter) will now be reluctant to share anything with Scott for fear that it may get back to Andy – even if said in confidence – and might end up being aired out in the local (and now national) media. If Andy thought that he was helping his son land a full-time job in the Dodgers outfield by bagging on Puig through Kershaw, his plan backfired miserably and instead may have nailed his son to the cross – no pun intended.

Realistically, Scott Van Slyke was already on borrowed time with the Dodgers anyway. Although the extremely popular Chesterfield, Missouri native has always been a fan-favorite, he struggled this past season with a .239 / .317 / .383 / .700 slash-line. And with Don Mattingly – who used Scott almost exclusively against left-handed pitching – no longer the Dodgers manager, it is a very real possibility that the Andrew Friedman/Farhan Zaidi-led Dodgers might not tender Van Slyke a contract this off-season with Puig, Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford, Joc Pederson and Kiké Hernandez already on the Dodgers active roster and top outfield prospect Scott Schebler in the wings.

Battling hand and wrist issues, Van Slyke struggled horribly late in the season – so much so that he was left off of the Dodgers postseason roster. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Simply put, the very last thing that Scott Van Slyke needed at this point of his career was for his father to bring negative attention to him with his MLB future hanging in the balance. One can only assume that the conversation might be a little tense over Thanksgiving dinner at the Van Slyke’s next week.

Like my father often told me as a kid, Andy – “You missed a perfect opportunity to keep you mouth shut.”