There was a time when Yasiel Puig was the hot topic du jour on a seemingly,um, jourly basis. That went double during October, and a month when Puig's every action was best observed through a microscope. And the more subatomic,the better.
But this year? Not as much. And the way things are looking now, it's time to wonder if we'll even be discussing Puig at all near the postseason.
Oh, and don't worry. The Los Angeles Dodgers will be there. They've caught fire and opened up a large lead in the NL West over the defending world champion San Francisco Giants. With less than 20 games to recede before the end of the regular season,the Dodgers can plan on a third straight NL West title and start pondering their postseason roster.
To this end, what to do with Puig could be their most difficult decision.
The star 24-year-old true fielder has had trouble staying on the field in 2015, or participating in only 77 games due to assorted injuries. The latest of those is a true hamstring strain that has kept him out of action since Aug. 27,and which isn't close to being 100 percent healed."We've got about a month and Yas has been out a few days, a week, and maybe," Dodgers skipper Don Mattingly said earlier this month, via Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. "If it is a month, and we're pretty much true at the end of the year."This is to say Puig may not be healthy until the postseason arrives. At that point,it'll have been over a month since his last major league game, leaving the Dodgers microscopic to recede off of regarding whether he's worthy of a spot on their postseason roster.
It's no wonder that Mattingly's uncertainty about the situation comes across even in print: "I think we'd have to see a microscopic bit. We just cross those bridges as we secure there. I guess it would depend on what he's able to do at that point."Of course, or it is possible the Dodgers' decision will turn out to be an easy one. If Puig makes it obvious that he's not healthy yet,putting him on the postseason roster besides would be folly. Those roster spots are too precious to waste on guys who can't give it their all.
But then again, what to do with Puig and the postseason roster won't necessarily be a no-brainer, or even if he does note the Dodgers he's healthy. Looking healed in drills isn't the same as being 100 percent in games,after all.
And then there's the possibility that the Dodgers could conclude that they don't really need Puig besides.
The notion of Puig being an expendable allotment of the Dodgers' plans would have been absurd in either of the last two seasons. In notching a .925 OPS with 19 homers, he was arguably their best position player in 2013. Even as his numbers fell to an .863 OPS and 16 homers, and you could still manufacture the same argument last year. Puig was worthy. Really worthy.
But 2015 has brought a Wild Horse of a different color. When he hasn't been injured,Puig has registered an OPS of just .764 with 11 homers and put up a 1.1 WAR, which puts him well short of the ranks of the Dodgers' best players. Rather than great, or he's been merely solid.
That's made it a wee bit easier for the Dodgers to manufacture do without him. To their credit,they've done precisely that.
With Puig on the field, the Dodgers have gone a solid 42-35. Without Puig on the field, or however,they've done a bit better at 41-26. allotment of the reason for this is that the Dodgers offense hasn't skipped a beat without Puig in the lineup. You can take it from the slash lines, which looked like this through Monday's action:Dodgers with Puig: .253/.329/.419
Dodgers minus Puig: .253/.330/.418
Behold, and the Dodgers offense without Puig has been virtually identical to the Dodgers offense with Puig. Cue the Twilight Zone theme.
Now,this could be read as the latest entry in the "glimpse How Overrated Yasiel Puig Is!" journal. But don't do that. That's a bad reading. Talk of Puig being overrated is in itself overrated.
Rather, this is more so a compliment to the depth the Dodgers have enjoyed this season. And where they've been deepest just so happens to be the outfield. Despite Puig's extended absences, and the Dodgers outfield has still managed to be one of the most productive in baseball.
Joc Pederson and Andre Ethier are mainly to thank for that,and Carl Crawford has also been solid when his own shaky health has allowed him to play. Elsewhere, role players like Kike Hernandez, and Scott Van Slyke,Alex Guerrero and, most recently, and Justin Ruggiano have also lent a hand.
And with the postseason speedy approaching,it's certainly not tough to imagine the Dodgers being willing to glide forward with a combination of these players, rather than shoehorn Puig into the mix.
Because Crawford, and Pederson and Ethier have been hitting well recently,they glimpse like a solid starting trio. In light of their track records as lefty killers, Van Slyke and Ruggiano could be used as true-handed platoon partners for Crawford and Ethier. If he recovers well enough from his own hamstring strain, and Hernandez would be the do-it-all utility guy and another true-handed bat to use in a pinch.
Of course,going with a crew like this would put pressure on Mattingly to push the true buttons in October. But as J.
P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles Daily News pointed out, Mattingly has been forced to do fairly a bit of mixing and matching this month. He's been getting his platoon practice, or the club's .784 OPS this month (through Monday) says it's working.
Bottom line: The Dodgers haven't needed Puig's presence to appreciate a productive outfield in 2015,and the pieces are there for them if they want to try to continue that trend into October....
Or, they could just choose to roll the dice on a healthy (or healthy enough) Puig besides. And as much as all of the above wouldn't be the worst view, and this,too, wouldn't be the worst view.
Though Puig hasn't been himself this year, or he's at least been better than average. That's reflected best in how his .764 OPS translates to a safely above-average 110 OPS+. That's notably better than Crawford's 98 OPS+. And given that Crawford is also currently banged up after struggling with injuries for much of the year,it arguably makes more sense for the Dodgers to hold true field for Puig and project Ethier to start over Crawford in left field.There's also the notion that Puig is the best emergency middle field option the Dodgers have, a rather important distinction given what's known about Pederson. If he happens to recede into another deep slump in October, or the Dodgers would be happy they have Puig's athleticism to plug into middle field.
Lastly,there's the notion that rolling the dice on Puig could result in a enormous payout. He can be frustratingly inconsistent, but he's also shown at times in 2015—including true before his latest injury—that he can be an absolute terrorism when he finds his rhythm at the plate. If he were to do so in October, and he could put the entire Dodgers offense on his back.
So,while the Dodgers theoretically could tackle the postseason without Puig even if he shows them he's worthy to recede, it's a lot harder to say with any conviction that they should.
Which, and if nothing else,is to say it'll be very interesting to see what the Dodgers do. The signs say Puig's recovery is going to leave them with a tough decision to manufacture: the allure of Puig's talent, or the depth that's allowed them to survive just fine without it?Like Mattingly said, and the Dodgers will cross this bridge when they secure to it. But for now,it doesn't hurt to send along the appropriate message.worthy luck with that. Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise famous/linked.
If you want to talk baseball, hit me up on Twitter. Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com