Yasiel Puig remains the only top-tier players to remain a free agent during the layoff. Here’s why he turned down an earlier offer from the Miami Marlins.
Yasiel Puig confirmed to the El Nuevo Herald’s Jorge Ebro that in fact that an offer was made to him by the Miami Marlins during the off-season. “I have offers on the table right now from other teams that aren’t the Marlins,” Puig recounts, “they were one of the first teams to make me an offer but it wasn’t in my price range,” according to the slugger.
In the current day, the outfielder is in South Florida on a humanitarian mission to help the people of Miami in the battle with the novel coronavirus. In conjunction with ‘Presidente Supermarkets’, Puig was distributing food to workers of Jackson Memorial Hospital who work in the intensive care wing.
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The native of Cienfuegos, Cuba was more than likely the team’s target before they signed Corey Dickerson on December 28 of last year. Puig who was coming off a near 20-20 season would have definitely been an upgrade in the Fish’s outfield.
The Marlins might have been the National League team that offered Puig a one year and 10 million dollar contract as reported by MLB Trade Rumors on March 13th.
Puig also said that playing in Miami would probably be very complicated because the expectations of the Cuban fans of South Florida might have been a little too demanding, ”I asked for a little more money from Miami because playing in front of Cubans would be tough because they would expect me to go 5-5 every day. I played six years in Los Angeles, but Mexicans are different from Cubans. They appreciate my talents a lot more,” said Puig to El Nuevo Herald.
Could Puig sign with the Miami Marlins after the stoppage in play?
If we go by his words it isn’t very likely that he will don the jersey of Miami this coming season. If I was betting man I would definitely wouldn’t bet on the talented but eccentric outfielder ending up in Little Havana. Where will Puig end up? Only time will tell us that.