Yasiel Puig signing with Giants would be tough pill to swallow for Dodgers fans

Yasiel Puig is drawing interest from the Giants, which won’t sit well with Dodgers fans.

With the MLB’s transaction freeze set to end this Friday, Yasiel Puig remains one of the top free agent outfielders on the open market. Puig, who spent his 2019 season with the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians, put up solid numbers to the tune of a .267 batting average, paired with modest power of 24 home runs and 84 RBI.

Puig would fit in well on a Giants team that’s in the middle of a retooling, especially after losing the likes of Kevin Pillar to the Boston Red Sox. The Giants need power and flare, plenty of which Puig can offer them and at a modest price at that. Even better? It would allow Puig the opportunity to regularly face his old team.

If the Giants sign Yasiel Puig, it’ll take some getting used to for Dodgers fans.

The Giants current outfield trio of Billy Hamilton, Alex Dickerson and Mike Yastrzemski will not cut it, even in a shortened season, and the presence of Hunter Pence as a likely DH candidate doesn’t mean what it used to. Suggesting Pablo Sandoval or Darin Ruf can do the job is also curious, to say the least.

San Francisco has been linked to Puig all offseason and MLB Insider Jim Bowden thinks the Giants will be players for him as soon as the freeze ends.

Puig spent the 2013-18 seasons with the Dodgers, making his lone All-Star appearance in 2014. Once sought after as one of the top international prospects in all of baseball, Puig delivered almost immediately when he was called up to Dodger Stadium. In fact, Puig was even rated No. 2 on the Giants most-hated opponents in recent history by NBC Bay Area. We cannot make this up.

Such a fit is curious to say the least, and rooting for a previously-disliked players won’t come overnight. But delivering a dinger or two to McCovey Cove ought to help.