Months after the Cincinnati Reds acquired Yasiel Puig during an aggressive offseason, the outfielder has become a particularly strong candidate to be traded, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports.
Coming out of the All-Star break, Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams told The Athletic's C. Trent Rosecrans that his club planned on being buyers at the deadline. Cincinnati was bringing up the rear of the NL Central but was 41-46 with a plus-27 run differential and sat 4 1/2 games behind the first-place Chicago Cubs.
Since the break, the Reds have gone 5-7 and are now seven games back of the division lead, which sets them up to become sellers, according to Rosenthal.
Puig earned a full-time role with the Reds after being acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers in a blockbuster involving Matt Kemp, Alex Wood, and Homer Bailey this past winter.
The 28-year-old impending free agent has hit .262/.311/.496 with 22 home runs and 13 stolen bases over 94 games while primarily playing right field.