Despite a new book chronicling the many issues between outfielder Yasiel Puig and his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates, Don Mattingly insists the team's clubhouse is "solid."
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Excerpts from Molly Knight's book, "The Best Team Money Can Buy" revealed several incidents between Puig and his teammates and Mattingly was approached about the perceived lack of unity in the Dodgers clubhouse.
Mattingly said that the issues in the book are in the past and that they've been put behind the team while he also added that some of the other issues were sorted out internally.
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"It was just different stuff we had talked about and it was them presenting information to him," Mattingly said, according to ESPN. "I saw on [MLB Network] them talking about it like it was an on-going thing. It's not an on-going thing. The clubhouse is solid."
The book, which comes out on July 14, includes anecdotes of Puig trying to bring his entourage on a team flight that was only for wives and girlfriends and getting into an argument with pitcher Zack Greinke.
The story includes the fact that he almost came to blows with Justin Turner during the altercation.
Greinke and Puig also had another run-in when the team bus was set to leave in Chicago and Puig was looking under the luggage bay for his bag.
This led to Puig ignoring requests to board the bus again and caused Greinke to throw his bag on Michigan Avenue. According to the book, Puig then stepped toward Greinke, but was restrained by J.P. Howell.
Despite his reported problems and Mattingly even getting frustrated with him on several occasions, the Dodgers have shown no willingness to move Puig.
Los Angeles has made the playoffs in both years of Puig's career thus far, winning the division in each one, but they've struggled to get to the World Series.
The Dodgers haven't been to the Fall Classic since winning it all in 1988 and have had two straight postseasons end prematurely after tremendous regular seasons.
Los Angeles lost to the Cardinals in six games in the NLCS in 2013 and then was eliminated by St. Louis again, three-games-to-one, in the 2014 NLDS -- both times after clinching the NL West.
L.A. has won six of its last eight games and sits in first place in the NL West with a 2.5-game lead over the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants.
Puig is batting .295 this season through 38 contests with three homers and 10 RBI and owns a .304/.386/.498 slash line in his career with 38 long-balls and 121 RBI in 285 games.
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