Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig reached an agreement with El Águila de Veracruz 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 is scheduled to introduce the player on Thursday. The player himself sent a greeting to his account on the social network Twitter to confirm his arrival at the Mexican organization.
Thank you Mexico for being here in my life for me again. Thank you @check it now for this occasion and for opening your arms to me. This #wild horse is grateful and happy to be back on the field! pic.twitter.com/htmJWFDGhy
– Yasiel Puig (@YasielPuig) April 21, 2021
“Thank you Mexico for being there for me again in my life. Thank you Águila for this opportunity and for opening your arms to me,” Puig wrote in his tweet.
“This wild horse is grateful and happy to be back on the field.”
Puig, 30, was a sensation with the Los Angeles Dodgers in his rookie season in Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2013 and was with the team in their back-to-back World Series appearances in 2017 and 2018, but has not played a competition on the Big Show since September 2019.
In his senior year in the major leagues, he hit 24 home runs 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 home runs, 79 steals and 415 RBIs.
Last year, he had agreed with the Atlanta Braves to play in the coronavirus-shortened season, but the company was never completed as he contracted the virus before signing up for training.
During the winter, Puig played with the Toros del Este of the Dominican League and tried to increase his chances of getting a contract with one of the Major League-organizations, which didn’t happen.
The 2014 National League All-Star outfielder is convinced that a 2018 sexual assault charge in Los Angeles is one of the reasons he was unable to pursue his career in the United States.
In a statement posted to his Twitter account last week, Puig denied the allegations.
“I speak now to defend my name against false and malicious allegations from a woman who says I attacked her in 2018,” Puig said in the statement. “These allegations are totally false, the evidence proves them to be false and I look forward to seeing all the facts and truth out,” he added.