DENVER – Yasiel Puig is expected to officially be assigned to the Oklahoma City Dodgers on Thursday. He will have 72 hours after that to report to his new team.

Whether he ever plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers again is very much in doubt.

“I don’t want to handicap that situation,” Dodgers GM Farhan Zaidi said Tuesday at Coors Field. “It certainly is a possibility. Beyond that, it’s just speculation.”

The Dodgers certainly didn’t offer a clear process for Puig to work his way back to Los Angeles. In fact, Zaidi gave the impression that Puig was given the news about his demotion – when the Dodgers were unable to trade him before Monday’s non-waiver deadline – through his agent and not directly from the Dodgers. Manager Dave Roberts said he has not spoken with Puig since the outfielder was told not to show up at Dodger Stadium for Monday’s flight to Denver.

“I don’t want to get into that level of detail,” Zaidi said. “But suffice it to say, he understands the message from us and what we hope he accomplishes down there.”

Roberts spoke vaguely of swing mechanics and a more consistent approach, both off the field and at the plate. But what the Dodgers really hope Puig accomplishes in Triple-A is to regain enough value for them to eventually trade him, whether it is later this month (after clearing waivers) or in the offseason.

“Everything is on the table right now,” Zaidi said. “We have discussions with almost every team about a lot of our players. So I wouldn’t want to single him out and talk about that.”

Puig’s behavior has been less of an issue this season. While Zaidi said Puig’s demotion was “a domino effect” of being able to upgrade in right field with the acquisition of Josh Reddick, neither Zaidi nor Roberts went so far as to call the move strictly a baseball decision. Asked if he had found himself devoting more time and energy to Puig than any other player, Roberts responded with just one word – “Yes.”

If Puig’s time with the Dodgers can be salvaged it will clearly require a commitment on his part to become more professional in his preparation and work ethic.

“We can all continue to grow. But – Yasiel can continue to grow. I’ll leave it at that,” Roberts said. “I mean, there’s definitely been good moments of quality work. But that needs to continue to be consistent.

“This is something that we expect him to understand is not punitive. It’s for his growth, to become ultimately a better baseball player.”

Late arrivals at the ballpark, poor work habits and a lack of preparation might have been tolerated when Puig was playing at an All-Star level. But he has been a fairly mediocre player – for all his highlight-reel physical skills – for some time now. Puig has no longer been able to overpower the game with his athleticism as he did when he burst onto the scene in 2013. Since the start of last season, he has hit .258/.321/.411 with 18 home runs in 160 games while always being just another sprint down the first-base line away from a hamstring injury.

But Zaidi said it was not fair to characterize this week’s move as a sign that the Dodgers had simply run out of patience with the 25-year-old outfielder.

“Look, a lot of this is circumstantial as I have said. You can never assume you’re going to make a trade,” the GM said. “The fact that we were able to get a right fielder that we believe is an upgrade for this team right now did have a little bit of a domino effect in terms of what his role was going to be and where he was going to play moving forward. That’s really the primary element here.

“So I don’t think that (saying the team ran out of patience with Puig) is a fair description because there are a lot of ways the last 48 hours could have unfolded where he would be playing right field for us today. The primary thing was the trade deadline, looking for targets, looking for ways to improve the team. That was the primary driver.”

Contact the writer: bplunkett@scng.com