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Yasiel Puig 100% healthy, but is he game ready for NLDS?

"Rock, paper, scissors for a roster spot?"
"Rock, paper, scissors for a roster spot?"
Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES -- Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig was one of several batters to face living pitching in a simulated game during Tuesday's workout at Dodger Stadium, but his roster status for the National League Division Series remains in question.

"He's 100 percent from what we've seen in Arizona and not having any complications here," general manager Farhan Zaidi said on Tuesday.

Puig might be healthy, but he is still game rusty, having missed 34 games with a strained right hamstring, with Saturday and Sunday the only two major league games under his belt since the end of August.

"He's a guy who hasn't played in a while, so he's a little bit rusty," manager Don Mattingly said. "But that doesn't mean he can't be ready when the bright lights come on. You never know what will happen."

"Ultimately it was a game and a half of big league time, but we also have a lot of information from the live at-bats he got in instructs," Zaidi said. "We have some running times where he was running full out. He didn't have the chance to go jailbreak in the games here, but we're continuing to evaluate."

Puig was able to play some games in the Dodgers instructional league at Camelback Ranch in Arizona before his activation over the final weekend. The question now is, are the extra four days between Sunday's regular season finale and Friday's NLDS Game 1 enough to get Puig game ready?

"The big questions for me have been his health and whether he's had enough at-bats. We've done our best with the time that we had to try to accommodate both of those things," Zaidi said. "If we had our choice, we would have moved his schedule up so he'd have more time.

The Dodgers don't necessarily need Puig to be a starter to add him to the roster. At the very least, he can fill the role that Scott Van Slyke would have played, the lefty masher of the bench, with Van Slyke still burdened by right wrist inflammation.

Neither Mattingly nor Zaidi would reveal whether Puig would be on the NLDS roster, a decision that doesn't have to be made until 7 a.m. PT on Friday. Though the roster will likely be announced at some time on Thursday.

The Dodgers will hold workouts on Wednesday and Thursday as well, before Game 1 on Friday night at Dodger Stadium.

"Some guys that that still have some physical question marks, we want to see how they look today and tomorrow. I think that will help inform our final decisions," Zaidi explained.