Yasiel Puig's life may be in turmoil, but he'll at least have somewhere to play baseball come November.
The Cuban former Major Leaguer has signed with the Senadores de San Juan in Puerto Rico's LBPRC, returning to the league where he first played winter ball as a 21-year-old prospect in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization during the 2012-13 season with the Indios de Mayaguez.
Puig has spent the last three winter ball seasons in Venezuela, playing for the Tiburones de La Guaira in 2023-24 and 2024-25 and the Navegantes del Magallanes last season. With La Guaira, Puig won the 2024 LVBP championship and the 2024 Caribbean Series in Miami, crushing a 416-foot home run at loanDepot Park against LIDOM's Tigres del Licey in the round robin.
Puig, 34, set a new single-season home run record in the Canadian Baseball League this past summer, hitting 24 homers in 46 games with the league's Toronto Maple Leafs. He also led the league in on-base percentage with a .522 mark, finished second in batting average with a .410 mark, RBIs with 57, and walks with 35. In 2025 in South Korea's KBO League with the Kiwoom Heroes, he batted .212/.285/.340 with six homers and 20 RBIs in 40 games.
In total, Puig has played 130 career winter ball games, slashing .275/.366/.465 with 19 homers and 69 RBIs over six seasons with the Indios de Mayaguez in Puerto Rico, the Toros del Este and Estrellas Orientales in the Dominican Republic, and the Tiburones de La Guaira and Navegantes del Magallanes in Venezuela.
Puerto Rico, as a U.S. territory, is likely the only winter ball destination open to Puig, who is awaiting sentencing in a federal criminal case in Los Angeles where he was convicted by a jury on one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice in February. His attorneys have requested the court sentence him to probation, while federal prosecutors asked Judge Dolly M. Gee to sentence him to 18 months in federal prison.
He was due to be sentenced in federal court in Los Angeles in late July, but the hearing was vacated while the court considers Puig's motion for acquittal. Were Puig to receive a sentence of probation, it is unlikely he'd be allowed to leave the country without permission from both the court and his probation officer.
Meanwhile, Puig has filed for bankruptcy in Florida, citing assets of $1,691,285.83 and liabilities of $9,446,357.32.
His bankruptcy case, filed in the Southern District of Florida, was dismissed on Aug. 27 after the outfielder failed to file a certification that he underwent credit counseling. The certificate was filed on Aug. 28, and Puig's attorneys will try to get his bankruptcy case reinstated to the docket at a Sept. 23 hearing in Miami.
