The Toronto Maple Leafs just signed Yasiel Puig and no this is not a joke but it is not the team you think
Photo credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Former Major League Baseball all-star Yasiel Puig has signed a contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. No, not that one.
Yasiel Puig, an MLB veteran of seven seasons, signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, according to the Toronto Star, but Puig isn't switching to Hockey.
Puig is signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs of the Canadian Baseball League, an independent baseball competition in Canada.
According to the Star, Puig's contract is the largest in the team's history, although details of the contract's numbers were not disclosed.
The 35-year-old Puig spent seven MLB seasons with three teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds, & Cleveland Indians (now Guardians). Puig was named an all-star for the National League in 2014.
A defector from Cuba, Puig debuted in 2012 for the Dodgers. L.A.'s top prospect in 2013, according to MLB.com, Puig spent six seasons with the team before splitting his final season between Cincinnati and Cleveland.
Having not played since 2019, Puig continued his career outside of MLB with stops in Mexico and Korea. Puig has also dealt with multiple legal issues in his post-MLB career, including an upcoming sentencing for making false statements in an investigation into illegal gambling.
Puig isn't the only former MLB All-Star in the CBL. Three time all-star reliever Fernando Rodney is a member of the Hamilton Cardinals, the 49-year-old having been playing for Hamilton since 2024.
The Maple Leafs made headlines last year after signing Japanese star pitcher Ayami Sato, one of the top female baseball players in the world, and the first woman to play in the CBL.
Baseball's Leafs play their baseball at Toronto's Christie Pits, which of note nearby has a fantastic "Windsor-style" pizza place in Ambassador Pizza, which can be brought in to the outdoor park. The friendly portions may warrant a walk after, however.
The baseball Maple Leafs didn't come first before the more well known NHL team, but the "Maple Leafs" moniker was used by a baseball team decades before being used by the hockey club.
The minor league baseball club, also named the Toronto Maple Leafs, existing from 1896 to 1967, the new Leafs baseball team independently starting operations two years later in 1969.
If the two stories are accurate, and sometimes with old legends they can not be, the hockey and baseball Leafs were named for different reasons, the original baseball team named for the Maple Leaf itself, the NHL team named for the Maple Leaf regiment of World War I.
Another difference between the two teams? Winning. The CBL Leafs last won the championship in 2007, but with eight titles in their history.
A fun fact, the former Leafs hold a special historical designation, having been given the unfortunate honour of giving up the first ever professional home run to a then 19-year-old Babe Ruth all the way back in 1914, the start to the greatest legend of MLB's history.
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