SATURDAY: Puig is expected to report to the Oklahoma City Dodgers tomorrow, Rosenthal reports (all Twitter links). The reason his debut with Oklahoma City has been delayed is that he first needed to clear optional waivers to be sent to the minors. He cleared Thursday, but his actual reporting date will coincide with the beginning of a road series against Iowa.
MONDAY 7:28pm: The Dodgers are expected to send Puig to the minors tomorrow, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Puig, for his part, appears likely to report on time for the assignment.
6:53pm: Puig was told not to report to travel with the team today, Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown tweets. Rosenthal, meanwhile, has corrected his story (on Twitter) to indicate that Puig did not, in fact, “storm off.”
5:53pm: Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig “stormed off” and did not travel with the team to Colorado on Monday after being told that he would be either traded or demoted, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes. The Dodgers did not trade him before today’s 3:00pm deadline. It’s unclear what the team’s next move might be.
The Dodgers’ recent acquisition of Josh Reddick from the Athletics would appear to affect Puig’s usefulness with the Dodgers. Puig has batted a disappointing .260/.320/.386 in 303 plate appearances this season. He was the subject of trade rumors heading up to the deadline, with the White Sox reportedly showing interest. He had also been connected to the Dodgers’ talks with the Reds regarding Jay Bruce.
Puig burst on the scene as a 22-year-old rookie in 2013, but he’s hit worse in every season since then, with his average, on-base percentage and power all gradually diminishing. His struggles have led to a drop in fWAR from 5.3 in 2014 to 0.5 so far this season.