Yasiel Puig’s Journey from Cuba to MLB Heading for the Movies

HAVANA TIMES — The life of the young Cuban baseball player Yasiel Puig, one of the rising stars of Major League Baseball, will be the subject for a Hollywood movie, reported “The Hollywood Reporter.”

According to the magazine that specializes in reports from the film industry, RatPac Entertainment of Brett Ratner, has bought the rights to take Puig’s story to the screen based on the recently released article “Escape from Cuba: Yasiel Puig’s Untold Journey to the Dodgers.”

The article that crystalized the producer’s interest was written by Jesse Katz and published by the Los Angeles Magazine.

The extensive story details how Puig, 23, and an instant sensation with the Los Angeles Dodgers in his rookie season, tried to escape the island several times, something that the ballplayer, had always refused to discuss.

It turns out that he left Cuba with the help of smugglers working for a dangerous Mexican drug cartel that took him to the Yucatan Peninsula in a speedboat.

The delay in payment of Puig’s Miami based sponsor to the Los Zeta’s, caused the ballplayer to be held captive for 20 days.

The story had a happy ending and Puig now enjoys his seven-year $42 million contract with the Dodgers. The article served to highlight the dangers that Cuban players face when fleeing the island in search of a professional future in the US Major Leagues.

According to “The Hollywood Reporter,” Ratner will produce the film alongside Beau Flynn. They recently worked together on the movie “Hercules”, which opens in the USA on July 25.

RatPac is also behind the financing of the film “The Revenant,” a thriller that will be directed by Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring American actor Leonardo DiCaprio.