The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed Yasiel Puig.
Yes, that Yasiel Puig, the one who two months ago was found guilty of obstruction of justice and providing false statements to federal officials investigating an illegal sports gambling operation.
And no, not those Maple Leafs.
The 35-year-old outfielder has signed to play with the Maple Leafs of the Canadian Baseball League, the league announced Thursday. The Toronto Star was first to report the signing.
The league said Puig is expected to be in Toronto’s Opening Day lineup May 10. Puig is also facing up to 15 years in prison, and is scheduled to be sentenced May 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.
In February, when Puig was found guilty on charges related to a Jan. 27, 2022, interview with investigators looking into the gambling operation in which he admitted to participating, the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to say how much, if any, prison time it would request for Puig. Any sentence could be far more lenient.
Puig played seven MLB seasons from 2013 to 2019 and was named an All-Star as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2014. In his final season, he played for the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians.
Puig was once among baseball’s most popular and electric players, with power at the plate, speed on the bases, a cannon for an arm and a personality that both entertained and ruffled feathers. After hitting .319 with 19 home runs and 42 RBIs in 2013, he finished second in National League Rookie of the Year voting to Miami Marlins pitcher José Fernández.
The next season, at 23, Puig was named an All-Star, batting .296 with 16 homers, 69 RBIs, 67 walks and 11 stolen bases. By the end of his seven years in MLB, he had a career line of .277/.348/.475 with 681 strikeouts in 3,015 at-bats. He also finished with 28 errors in the outfield, eight of which came in his penultimate year in 2018, an MLB high that season.
The Canadian Baseball League is a semi-pro league based in Ontario.