The crazy horse will continue to patrol professional outfields this summer.
Cuban outfielder Yasiel Puig, who has appeared in 861 MLB games, batting .277/.348/.475 and hitting 132 homers with Cleveland, Cincinnati, and the Los Angeles Dodgers, has signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Canadian Baseball League for 2026.
His signing comes just months after he was found guilty by a jury in a Los Angeles federal court on two counts of lying to federal investigators who were investigating sports gambling rings. He has yet to be sentenced in the case, with each count of making a false statement carrying up to five years in prison, while the obstruction of justice charge carries up to a 10-year term of imprisonment.
The conviction could create problems for Puig’s plans to play in Canada, as persons convicted of felonies are generally not allowed to enter Canada without special permission from the government, though exceptions are granted on a case-by-case basis according to the Government of Canada’s immigration website.
Puig hasn’t played professionally in the United States since 2019, when he played 149 games for the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. He spent the winter in Venezuela playing for the Navegantes del Magallanes of the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, where he hit .282/.340/.447 with three homers and 14 RBIs in 26 regular season games. He last appeared in the round robin playoff for the Navegantes on Jan. 16, going 0-for-3 in a 4-0 loss to the Bravos de Margarita. He had seven hits in 27 at-bats with six RBIs and two homers in nine playoff games with Magallanes before leaving to appear at his trial, which began in late January.
Over the last few years, he’s played winter ball for the Estrellas Orientales of LIDOM, the Tiburones de La Guaira and Navegantes del Magallanes in the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, played part of the summer of 2024 for Veracruz in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol and returned to the Kiwoom Heroes for the summer of 2025 before his summer season was cut short by a knee injury in May.
During the 2023-24 winter ball season, Puig was rumored to have drawn significant interest from several Major League Baseball clubs, but ultimately never signed a contract and has not returned to MLB.
The Canadian Baseball League, which was previously known as the Intercounty Baseball League, is a low-level professional circuit with nine teams in southern Ontario in Toronto and nearby cities.
Photo: Yasiel Puig of Kiwoom Heroes hits a ball during the opening game of the 2022 regular season for the Korea Baseball Organization in Seoul, April 2, 2022. Authorities Puig will plead guilty to lying to federal agents investigating an illegal sports gambling operation. The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday, Nov. 14, 2022, that Puig acknowledged in unsealed court documents that he denied betting on the operation when in fact he made hundreds of bets in 2019. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
