{"id":662421,"date":"2026-05-11T14:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/662421\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:44:15","slug":"yasiel-puig-homers-twice-in-debut-for-canadian-baseball-team-weeks-before-facing-possible-prison-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/662421\/","title":{"rendered":"Yasiel Puig homers twice in debut for Canadian baseball team weeks before facing possible prison sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yasiel Puig<\/a> may be staring down a 15-year prison sentence, but the former major leaguer can still hit.<\/p>\n

Puig is playing in the Canadian Baseball League for the Toronto Maple Leafs, and on Sunday, in a game against the Kitchener Panthers, he hit a pair of home runs.<\/p>\n

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The former big leaguer hit<\/a> a two-out, three-run home run into deep left field in the bottom of the second inning to break a 1-1 tie.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former MLB star Yasiel Puig hits his second home run for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday. @BaseballQuotes1\/X<\/p>\n

Puig pointed to the sky as he crossed home plate after trotting around the basepaths.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old slugger followed it up with a solo home run in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

Puig took a\u00a0 2-1 pitch into left field, into a park area far from the ballfield, where the semi-pro baseball game he was taking part in was.<\/p>\n

Puig signed with the Maple Leafs of the Canadian Baseball League late last month and Sunday was his first game with the semi-pro team.<\/p>\n

All of this occurred 20 days out from a sentencing hearing slated for May 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He was found guilty of obstruction of justice and providing false statements to federal investigators<\/a> who had been looking into an illegal sports gambling operation.<\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

Former MLB star Yasiel Puig rounds the bases after hitting his second home run for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday. @BaseballQuotes1\/X<\/p>\n

The charges stemmed from an interview with investigators that took place on Jan. 27, 2022.<\/p>\n

He is potentially facing 15 years in jail, though he could receive a more lenient sentence for the situation.<\/p>\n

Puig had played seven seasons in Major League Baseball, spending six of those seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers<\/a> and playing for Cincinnati<\/a> and Cleveland<\/a> in his final year.<\/p>\n

\"YasielYasiel Puig #66 of the Cleveland Indians<\/a> looks on during the fourth inning of the MLB game between the Cleveland Indians and the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on September 09, 2019 in Anaheim, California. Getty Images\"Former<\/p>\n

Former MLB star Yasiel Puig celebrates one of his two home runs for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday. @BaseballQuotes1\/X<\/p>\n

During his time in the majors, he was named to the MLB All-Star Game in 2014.<\/p>\n

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Puig hit .277 in 3,376 plate appearances, while recording 132 home runs and 415 RBIs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yasiel Puig may be staring down a 15-year prison sentence, but the former major leaguer can still hit.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[14250,49,48,244825,10391,4850,29828,244827,1522,3962,487,244826,462,82,746,187734],"class_list":["post-662421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-baseball-game","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-baseball-league","tag-cincinnati","tag-cleveland","tag-cleveland-indians","tag-kitchener-panthers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-major-leaguer","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-yasiel-puig"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}