It’s safe to say that Yasiel Puig has played his way into the Dodgers everyday lineup at the top of the order and in right field. The young outfielder already has five home runs and 11 RBIs and has given Dodgers fans a renewed confidence and strand of hope that the season can be saved.

However, when Matt Kemp and Carl Crawford come back, manager Don Mattingly will face a tough choice in terms of his other outfield spots and has fueled speculation about the team trading Andre Ethier. Jim Bowden of ESPN.com and SiriusXM dicussed yet another Ethier trade rumor this morning:

“Ethier and $5 million, Pederson, Gordon, Magill and Withrow to the Chicago White Sox for Jake Peavy, Alexei Ramirez and Jesse Crain.”

While the deal would make sense for the Dodgers as they could use a shortstop so Hanley Ramirez can slide over to third base and Peavy would give them another front line starter, but it’ll be hard to convince Ned Colletti and Stan Kasten to accept this deal.

Matt Magill has almost no trade value due to his inability to throw strikes at the major league level, but it’s another example that Ethier seems to be the odd man out.

Even though his bat has woken up a little, he’s still hitting .249 with five home runs and 20 RBIs. While it’s easy to point the finger at Kemp, he’s the face of the franchise and isn’t going anywhere.

If the Dodgers are to pursue a trade for Ethier, they’re going to need to eat at least half of his remaining $70 million dollars after he was signed to a five-year extension just last season.

Crawford won’t be back until July at the earliest, but there will continue to be more and more Ethier rumors as Puig continues to dominate at the major league level.