Cuban gardener Yasiel Puig reached an agreement with the Veracruz Eagle of the Mexican Baseball League (LMB), a source related to the negotiations told ESPN on Tuesday.
According to the source, Puig will be announced by Veracruz on Wednesday and a press conference to introduce the player is scheduled for Thursday. The same player sent a greeting on his account on the social network Twitter confirming his arrival at the Mexican organization.
Thank you Mexico for being there for me once again in my life. Thanks @elaguilabeisbol for this opportunity and to open my arms. That #wild horse He is grateful and happy to be playing on the field again. pic.twitter.com/htmJWFDGhy
– Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) April 21, 2021
“Thank you Mexico for being there for me once again in my life. Thank you Eagle for this opportunity and for opening my arms,” Puig wrote in his tweet.
“This wild horse is grateful and happy to be back on the field,” he added.
Puig, 30, was a sensation with the Los Angeles Dodgers in his rookie season in the American Major Leagues (MLB) in 2013 and was with the team in their consecutive World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018, but hasn’t played a game on the Big Show since September 2019.
In his senior year in the major leagues, he hit 24 homers and 30 doubles and stole 19 bases in 149 games with the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians. In seven seasons, he hit 277 with 132 homers, 79 steals and 415 RBIs.
Last year he agreed with the Atlanta Braves to play in the coronavirus-cut season, but the business never came to fruition because he contracted the virus before reporting to training.
During the winter, Puig played with the Eastern Bulls of the Dominican league, looking to improve their chances of getting a contract with any of the major league organizations, which did not happen.
The National League All-Star Gardener in 2014 is convinced that a charge of sexual assault in Los Angeles in 2018 is one of the reasons that has prevented him from continuing his career in the United States.
In a statement issued on his Twitter account last week, Puig denied the allegations.
“I speak now to defend my name against false and malicious accusations of a woman who says I assaulted her in 2018,” Puig said in the statement. “These allegations are totally false, the evidence proves them to be false and I long for all the facts and truth to come to light,” he added.