The Los Angeles federal criminal trial for Yasiel Puig scheduled for Nov. 4, 2025 has been pushed back, with Judge Dolly M. Gee agreeing to a stipulation by both Puig’s attorneys and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California to continue the trial until January 2026.
A continuance is an agreement to postpone a proceeding to a later date. Puig is is charged with two counts of making false statements to federal investigators and one count of obstruction of justice in the Central District of California.
In an order issued last week, Judge Gee postponed the trial until Jan. 20, 2026, which means that Puig will likely be available for the Navegantes de Magallanes through the 16-game Round Robin playoff, which begins on Jan. 2.
Puig’s trial had been scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. PST on Nov. 4 at the United States Courthouse in Los Angeles before Judge Gee. The case, which was filed in August 2022, was held up for by an appeal regarding the admissibility of the facts of a plea agreement Puig had reached with the government that he later reneged upon. The case stems from the federal investigations into illegal sports gambling operations run by former minor league baseball player Wayne Nix and others in California, where sports gambling is illegal at the state level.
Puig hasn’t played professionally in the United States since 2019, when he played 149 games for the Cleveland Indians and Cincinnati Reds. When the case against him was first filed in 2022, Puig played for the Kiwoom Heroes of South Korea’s KBO League. He’s since played winter ball for the Estrellas Orientales of LIDOM, the Tiburones de La Guaira 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 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. He signed with the Navegantes de Magallanes of the LVBP for the 2025-26 winter ball season, which begins on Wednesday. The regular season will run through Dec. 27, with the five-team, 16-game Round Robin playoff to follow, likely concluding before the rescheduled start of Puig’s trial.
Each count of making a false statement carries up to five years in prison, while the obstruction of justice charge carries up to a 10-year term of imprisonment should Puig be convicted at trial. Puig’s case is pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and is No. 22-cr-00394.
Photo: Outfielder Yasiel Puig of the Kiwoom Heroes reacts in the top of the eighth inning during the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) League opening game between Kiwoom Heroes and Lotte Giants at Gocheok Skydome on April 02, 2022 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
