Inside The Dodgers

Former Dodger Yasiel Puig Announces Return to Organized Baseball

The former LA fan favorite is back in the game.

Matt Wagner

Former Dodger Yasiel Puig Announces Return to Organized Baseball
Former Dodger Yasiel Puig Announces Return to Organized Baseball /
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A former Los Angeles Dodgers fan favorite is back in baseball.

Yasiel Puig, who played right field for LA from 2013 to 2018, announced that he'd be playing for Estrellas Orientalas in the Dominican Republic.

Estrellas is part of the Dominican Winter League, one of the more prestigious spots to play baseball in the season, and they've previously had their roster littered with major league talent, notably San Diego Padres outfielder Fernando Tatis Jr. and Houston Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena.

Puig electrified Los Angeles throughout his six seasons with the franchise, a tenure that started off with a bang in his MLB debut, when he hit a home run and got a game-ending outfield assist to defeat the Padres.

But perhaps his most memorable moment came when he hit a dagger of a home run against Eduardo Rodriguez, then of the Red Sox, in Game 4 of the 2018 World Series.

Although the Dodgers would lose the series to the Red Sox in four games, Puig's shot to left field was one of the more memorable home runs in recent Dodger history.

Puig was traded to the Cincinnati Reds ahead of the 2019 season, and he bounced around from that point, going north to Cleveland that same year.

From there, he went to Mexico and the Dominican Republic before signing a one-year contract with the Kiwoom Heroes of the Korean Baseball Organization in 2022.

He excelled in South Korea, hitting .277/.368/.474 with 21 home runs and 73 RBI, but he'd remained unsigned so far this year.

Now, Puig -- or The Wild Horse, as legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully called him -- will have another chance to show what he can do.

And knowing what he did in LA, he surely has more than a few big homers and throws in his cannon of a right arm.

Published
Matt Wagner
MATT WAGNER

Matt Wagner was born and raised in southern California, and he lived there before moving to Colorado and getting his B.A. in Communications from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2022. He relocated back to southern California in 2023 and is looking forward to covering the teams that mean so much to his home area. Some of his past work is in Bleacher Report, Dodgers Tailgate, and, most recently, Colorado Buffaloes Wire. Aside from writing, you can probably catch him petting the nearest dog or eating some good Mexican food.

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