For the past six weeks, it looked like the Dodgers would win the NL West and perhaps the league’s top seed despite getting little contribution from Yasiel Puig.
In August, the Cuban sensation compiled a slash average of .216/.296/.247. As that slugging percentage indicates, Puig wasn’t hitting for any extra-base power, managing only two doubles and no home runs in 108 plate appearances. Through the first two weeks of September, he showed some improvement, batting .271 with a .750 OPS. But the power was still missing. Again, Puig only had two doubles and no home runs.
Dodgers manager Don Mattingly moved Puig down in the lineup, batting him sixth or seventh occasionally. But for most of this stretch, Mattingly continued to bat Puig second, sometimes even batting him leadoff. The belief seemed to be that if Puig was to turn himself around, seeing better pitches to hit with Adrian Gonzalez and the resurgent Matt Kemp batting behind him would help with that. Having Juan Uribe or A.J. Ellis hitting behind him probably wouldn’t. It’s hard to fault that thinking.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers were winning and staving off a surge from the Giants in the NL West. Yet wouldn’t this team be winning even more games if Puig was playing better? Or wouldn’t the lineup be more productive if Mattingly replaced Puig with another hitter?
The Los Angeles Times‘ Steve Dilbeck advocated such a move on Sept. 10, writing that the Dodgers needed to bench Puig and play Andre Ethier instead. In his view, September wasn’t the time to stick with a struggling player. A division title and playoff bid were at stake. Ethier wasn’t exactly swinging a hot bat, hitting .251 with a .690 OPS at the time. Maybe that was a commentary on just how badly Puig was playing. Ethier seemed like a more productive alternative in comparison.
However, this also seemed to buy into the conventional wisdom that experience is more important than talent and upside during the stretch run for the playoffs. Though Ethier appears more limited as a player with each passing day, such thinking goes, he should be able to offer something due to his nine years in the major leagues. Oh, and he bats left-handed.
Dilbeck stumped for Ethier getting into the lineup on that particular date because of his success against Padres right-hander Ian Kennedy. In 34 plate appearances, Ethier has a .324 average, .937 OPS, two home runs and five RBI. OK, maybe that’s a good argument for Mattingly playing matchups and putting Ethier in the lineup to face a pitcher he’s hit well during his career.
But what about after that? If Ethier had been able to continue that success against Kennedy, does that one game justify keeping a less potent bat (though perhaps a more consistent defensive center fielder) in the lineup because of veteran experience? Or should the Dodgers have stuck with Puig because of the impact he made earlier in the season and the hope he can get back to that level of performance by the postseason?
Mattingly has clearly opted for the latter, in spite of protests from observers like Dilbeck. As he put it, it’s “sink or swim” with Puig. The Dodgers are a better team with Puig in the lineup, rather than Ethier, and to stay ahead of the Giants in the NL West and make a run through the playoffs, they need him at his best. And he wouldn’t rediscover those skills while sitting on the bench.
Puig was involved in further controversy on Monday night when cameras caught Kemp apparently shouting at him in the Dodgers dugout. At issue seemed to be Puig stopping at second base, rather than advancing to third, on a single by Gonzalez in the sixth inning.
Was Kemp yelling at Puig for depriving him of a potential RBI opportunity with no outs in the inning? Or was this an example of Kemp pushing his teammate to keep his head in the game and not make a mental error that could have cost the Dodgers a run?
Furthermore, was the incident between Kemp and Puig (though it mostly seemed to be Kemp barking at Puig before Mattingly intervened) a public demonstration of in-fighting amongst the Dodgers? Was there bad clubhouse chemistry? Could that discord disrupt the Dodgers’ path toward the postseason and a World Series championship? You could almost see a collective stretching of fingers and cracking of knuckles among baseball commentators, ready to jump on that narrative.
After the game, ESPN Los Angeles’ Mark Saxon reported that several sources told him the Dodgers’ clubhouse was “dysfunctional.” Mattingly dismissed such rumblings, as you might expect. Rather, he dismissed the effect that such tensions might have on the team, comparing his Dodgers to the Oakland A’s of the early 1970s that constantly fought amongst themselves.
Sure, a work environment is much more pleasant if everyone gets along. And the presumption is a club with good chemistry, with teammates supporting one another, is conducive to winning. But if the Dodgers are winning games, does it really matter if they get along? If this team is celebrating a World Series championship at the end of October, who cares if Kemp punches Puig afterwards, like Roger Dorn slugging Ricky Vaughn at the end of Major League? If there are deeper issues, that can be addressed during the offseason.
But enough with speculation. Let’s look at some facts. Since Dilbeck called for Puig’s benching, he’s batted 9-for-26 — a .346 average. And on Tuesday night, he finally broke his seven-week home run drought, smacking a two-run shot off LaTroy Hawkins in the ninth inning of a 10-4 loss to the Rockies.
Some might derisively point out that Puig’s homer came when the Dodgers were far behind and ultimately had no impact on the game’s outcome. Others might crack that it came against the last-place Rockies, who have nothing more to play for this season. However, don’t overlook that Hawkins only allowed two home runs this season before serving up a long ball to Puig Tuesday night. The Rockies’ closer hasn’t been pitching well during the past couple of weeks, but Puig and the Dodgers surely aren’t going to question the results.
The Dodgers have 11 games remaining on their schedule. Eight of those games are against the Rockies and Cubs, providing an opportunity for Puig to further right himself against subpar pitching (excluding Jake Arrieta, of course). The other three games are against the Giants, which could either allow the Dodgers to put away a division title or make that race very close as the end of the regular season approaches.
But if Puig’s swing is clicking again and he’s no longer putting too much pressure on himself to end his struggles, he could be the difference between the Dodgers winning the NL West or playing a one-game wild-card playoff. That’s what Mattingly and Puig’s teammates are counting on.
