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Los Angeles Dodgers Rumors: Yasiel Puig Didn’t Board Team Plane To Colorado Following Trade Deadline

By Jason Fletcher
Published on: 12:25 PST, Aug 1, 2016

The 2016 MLB Trade Deadline passed on Monday at 4 p.m. ET and a number of big deals went down in the final hours. Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress went from the Milwaukee Brewers to the Texas Rangers, starting pitcher Matt Moore was traded from the Tampa Bay Rays to the San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets acquired Jay Bruce from the Cincinnati Reds.

The Los Angeles Dodgers also got in on the action as the team traded prospects Frankie Montas, Grant Holmes and Jharel Cotton to the Oakland Athletics for outfielder Josh Reddick and starting pitcher Rich Hill.

Hill has been one of the best pitchers in the American League in 2016 as he’s compiled a 9-3 record with a 2.25 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and 90 strikeouts in only 76 innings pitched. Hill is currently on the 15-day disabled list with a blister, but the hope is to have him ready to start on Saturday, the next time the Dodgers need a starter.

Reddick is a left-handed hitting right fielder who’s batting 0.296 with eight home runs and 28 RBIs in 68 games played this season. The Dodgers had been looking to add some help in the outfield following the inconsistent play of Yasiel Puig and Joc Pederson, and the injury to Andre Ethier.

Monday should’ve been a day that the Dodgers felt good about as the team improved for a run at the NL West title. Unfortunately, that wasn’t necessarily the case after Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal had some breaking news about Puig late in the day.

That’s right. Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig was apparently upset by the trade for Reddick and didn’t get on the team plane to Colorado this afternoon. According to Rosenthal, the Dodgers had told Puig entering the day that he would either be traded or demoted to Triple-A if the organization added another outfielder. When the deadline passed and Yasiel hadn’t been traded, the Cuban outfielder wasn’t happy.

Rosenthal got in touch with Puig’s agent, Adam Katz, and posted this to his Facebook page.

“I’m told (Puig) was not at the park. The club informed me and (Puig) understood clearly that they were making every effort to trade him and that if they were unable to come to terms with another club on a trade – and successful in acquiring another outfielder – that he likely would be demoted. My understanding is that transaction will happen tomorrow.”

When Ethier returns from the disabled list, the Dodgers will have a logjam in the outfield and will have nowhere for Puig to play. Possibly, the hope is to have him finish the year in Triple-A and then bring him back up next season with Reddick being a free agent after the year. That being said, it’s a really big risk to send down a guy with the type of pedigree that Puig brought with him from Cuba.

Yasiel is still 25-years-old and there were likely offers out there that the Dodgers could’ve accepted to give him an opportunity to play elsewhere. Instead, Los Angeles decided to roll the dice and held on to Puig and it has led to the current situation. It’ll be interesting to see where things go from here as this could put a damper on what has otherwise been an encouraging day for the Dodgers.

[Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images]

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