Cesar Puello Elects Free Agency

3:15PM: Puello has elected free agency, the Marlins announced.

6:48AM: The Marlins outrighted well-traveled outfielder Cesar Puello to Triple-A New Orleans on Wednesday night, per the Pacific Coast League transactions page. As a player who has been outrighted previously, Puello will have a chance to elect free agency.

Puello, a 28-year-old Dominican, has worked in the Mets, Angels, Rangers, Rays, Diamondbacks, Giants, and Marlins organizations over the course of his twelve-year stateside playing career. Though he’s logged a respectable .290/.372/.431 batting line over the course of 3000-plus minor league at-bats, Puello did not debut in the bigs until 2017. This past season marked his longest exposure to major league pitching. His early-season appearances with the Angels saw him in hot form, with a .350/.500/.683 line in a twelve game sample, before a June trade sent him to the outfielder-needy Marlins. Puello never got it going in Miami, and he wrapped up 2019 with a cumulative .248/.356/.384 slash (104 wRC+) in 147 plate appearances.

Puello was one of thirteen players handed suspensions in 2013 due to their link to the Biogenesis scandal. Then a top-50 prospect with the Mets, Puello was forced to miss 50 games that year owing to his involvement with the Florida clinic accused of providing PEDs to ballplayers.