Yasiel Puig Is On His Way

Yasiel Puig, welcome to the big leagues.

The Dodgers have announced that they have optioned right-handed pitcher Matt Magill to Triple-A Albuquerque and that they will recall outfielder Yasiel Puig from Double-A Chattanooga on Monday.

The club will be opening a 10-game homestand against the San Diego Padres on Monday, as Puig, who hit .313 with 13 steals, 12 doubles, three triples, and eight homers with 37 RBI in 40 games with the Lookouts, will make his major league debut.

Puig has been leading the Southern League with a .313 batting average and a .599 slugging percentage. He also ranked among the league’s leaders in steals (T-10th), doubles (T-5th), triples (T-7th), home runs (T-4th), and total bases (88, 6th).

With runners in scoring position, an area the Dodgers have notoriously and inexplicably struggled in this season, Puig was hitting .373.

“He’s got power. He’s got speed. He’s got an arm,” manager Don Mattingly said. “It’s a tooled-up package, but then on the back side of that, you still say it’s a young player. You don’t want to build him up to the point where it’s impossible to live up to expectations.”

Puig signed on as a free agent on June 29, 2012 out of Cuba, hit .517 with five doubles, two triples, three homers, and 11 RBI through 27 Cactus League games with the Dodgers.

Meanwhile, Magill, who was recalled early Sunday from Triple-A Albuquerque to start against the Rockies in place of the healing Hyun-Jin Ryu, allowed six earned runs in six innings in the Dodgers 7-2 loss.

Magill has gone 0-1 with a 6.38 ERA in five starts for the Dodgers this season. On Sunday, he became the first pitcher in the modern era to give up both four homers and nine walks.

The Dodgers announced earlier in the week that they had considered making moves to strengthen the outfield after Matt Kemp went on the 15-day DL. After Carl Crawford went down in Saturday’s game with a hamstring cramp, it was all but certain an outfielder would be called up.

There was much discussion on whether it would be Puig, fellow prospect Joc Pederson, or Tony Gwynn Jr.

via Matt Kamlet, CBSLA.com