Kansas City Royals are backing off from signing Yasiel Puig
The Kansas City Royals likely aren’t signing Yasiel Puig, which is a shame.
Despite earlier interest in the former Dodgers outfielder, the Kansas City Royals no longer appear to be interested in signing Yasiel Puig for the 2021 season. Jon Heyman tweeted this information out on Tuesday, stating that the three teams who were interested in signing Puig are actually not interested.
Puig hasn’t appeared in a major league game since 2019 when he was traded to Cleveland and finished the season batting .297 for them. It’s bizarre that teams aren’t wanting to sign him but maybe the gap between 2019 through now plays a role in that. He initially signed a contract with the Braves last season before testing positive for COVID-19 and the contract being nullified as a result.
The Royals have plenty of outfielders, but they don’t have a surefire right fielder, which is what Puig could provide them with. He just turned 30 too so it’s not like he’s past his prime.
The Royals are not in on Yasiel Puig. Which makes it a clean sweep. The 3 teams rumored to be in on Puig — Marlins, Yankees and Royals — are not interested. For his sake, hopefully there are teams.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) February 3, 2021
If the Royals rumors are true, Yasiel Puig won’t be coming to Kansas City.
I wrote about the Royals potentially signing Puig a few weeks ago and urged them to be aggressive, which included going after the 30-year-old outfielder. He’d give them more versatility as far as moving players around on the diamond and showed in 2019 that he can still crush the baseball.
The only real knocks on bringing him in would be the injury history as well as him not being a left-handed hitter, which is what they really need. Puig was injured in 2015 and 2016 but has appeared relatively healthy since then and the left-handed part shouldn’t deter the team from signing him. If he can help the Royals win, they should absolutely bring him to Kansas City.
It’s disappointing that the Royals won’t make an aggressive move like this. Puig might not be the player he once was, but he’d make a lot of sense for this young team and could help them be more versatile defensively. Maybe Dayton Moore has something else up his sleeve, but for now, it’s a shame he and the Royals won’t make a push for Yasiel Puig, who could be a lot of fun to watch in Kansas City.
Nine Potential Closer Candidates for 2021. dark. Next
Are you bummed the Royals are reportedly not interested in Puig or do you think it’s best that they’re passing on signing him?