Yasiel Puig is an MLB player who made his debut in 2013 playing for the Los Angeles Dodgers. With several awards to his name, as well as many records broken and set, he has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the Major League Baseball arena.
Puig, who was nicknamed “The Wild Horse” by Vin Scully, the legendary Dodger broadcaster, has also had his own share of downtimes as a sportsman, however, that did not hinder him from having a fulfilling career in the big league. It is safe to say he has had a good ride in his baseball career so far.
Yasiel Puig Started His Pro Career On The Cuban National Baseball Team
Yasiel Puig Valdés was born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, on December 7, 1990, to two engineers, Omar and Maritza Puig. At the age of 9, Yasiel Puig had begun hitting the baseball. He improved quickly at the game and by the time he turned 13, he became part of the Cuban national baseball team that won a bronze medal at the 2008 World Junior Baseball Championship.
After that competition, he went ahead to play for the Cienfuegos team of the Cuban National Series in the 2008-09 season. He batted. 276 with 5 home runs, however, his breakout season was in the 2009-10 Cuban National Series where he had a .330 batting average, 47 (RBIS), 17 home runs, and 78 runs scored in 327 at-bats. Yasiel then played for the Cuban national team the following year at the 2011 World Port Tournament alongside exploring other opportunities in the coming years.
The Baseball Star Had Many Failed Attempts Moving To Mexico To Join The MLB
From the year 2009, Yasiel began to attempt to move to Mexico so he could become a legal resident and sign a contract in Major League Baseball. By the end of the 2011 season, Yasiel and his teammate, Gerardo Concepcion, also made an attempt to defect to the United States. While Concepcion succeeded, Yasiel Puig failed and for his punishment, he was banned from playing for Cuba during the 2011-12 seasons.
According to reports, Yasiel Puig attempted to defect to Mexico a total of 13 times before he finally found success in 2012. He got signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 7-year contract worth $42 million and began with the team by playing in the minor league. He made his MLB debut on June 3, 2013, and went on to impress greatly.
In his first game for the Los Angeles Dodgers, he had two home runs and in his second game, he recorded 5 home runs; this made him the first Dodger player ever to have more than one home run in their first two games. Three games later (to make a total of five games), he became the second baseball player in recent times to have four home runs in his initial five games. More so, he had 10 RBIs which equalled the MLB record for most RBIs scored in the initial five games of a ball player’s career.
Yasiel Puig also went on to set several records, including becoming the first player to have at least 34 hits, as well as 7 home runs in the first 20 games played in the Major League. He also became the Dodger with the most hits and most bases covered in his first 20 games. At the end of his first month, Puig had amassed 44 hits which broke and set the team record for the most rookie hits in one month and second all-time for the most rookie hits in their first month. He also won the National League Player of the Month Award, as well as the National League Rookie of the Month Award for that month.
He Was Traded To The Cincinnati Reds In 2018
Yasiel Puig went on to set several other Dodger records (and matched others) before being traded (along with some teammates and cash considerations) to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for 3 players in 2018.
However, Yasiel’s time with the Cincinnati Reds was plagued with several challenges. He got involved in bench-clearing brawls in each of 2 Reds’ losses to the Pittsburgh Pirates in April and July 2019. For the first one, he got a 2-game suspension as punishment and the same day, he repeated his hostile actions on July 30th, 2019, his transfer deal to the Cleveland Indians was publicized.
Disciplinary Actions Followed Yasiel To The Cleveland Indians, Forcing Him To Become A Free Agent
Yasiel got traded to the Cleveland Indians in a three-team transaction which was completed on the 31st of July, 2019. During his time there, he served his 3 games suspension punishment for his role in a brawl. He began serving his punishment on the 12th of August 2019 in a game against Red Sox. He went ahead to play 28 games with a .297 batting average and 23 RBIs.
A couple of months later, in November 2019, Yasiel became a free agent and Cleveland didn’t make him an offer. As the 2020 season drew near, Puig remained unsigned due to several reasons. He was said to have been offered an opportunity to play in the Korea Baseball Championship League for Kiwoom Heroes but turned it down.
In July 2020, the Atlanta Braves came to a one-year deal with him but the offer was based on a negative COVID-19 test. Yasiel tested positive even though he was asymptomatic. Whether he will land a job before the shortened MLB season comes to an end remains unknown as of now.
Puig Has A Long-term Romance With Andrea de la Torre
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmg1AfNAtcz/
As of the time of this writing, Yasiel is dating Andrea de la Torre, a brunette of Mexican descent. They started dating in 2014 and have been together since then. Little is known about how their relationship commenced but over the years, Andrea has been a forte for the player as she frequently shows up at his games to support him.
There are also very scanty details about Andre’s personal life except that she has two brothers – Edgar de la Torre ad and Deigo de la Torre with whom she shares quality sibling times with as seen on her Instagram handle. She is also known to have quite a following on Instagram.
The Baseball Player Is The Proud Dad Of An All-boys Squad
From his relationship with Andrea, Yasiel has welcomed 3 adorable sons. The first child of the duo named Daniel was born on February 2, 2017, and close to a year later, his brother Damian came along on January 28th, 2018. The newest addition to the squad is Dante who was born on July 18th, 2020.
More so, it is known that the baseball star already had a son before he began dating Andrea. He welcomed his first son Diego Alejandro with ex-girlfriend Nicole Chaves in December 2013. Even though he is no longer involved with Diego’s mother, he is still involved in his son’s life.
