There were moments in recent seasons when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked about Yasiel Puig's daily approach to his work, about his consistency, and Roberts would pause and smile and look down, collecting and perhaps measuring his thoughts.
Whatever he said after that really didn't matter as much as that initial tell.
Puig improved his play after his brief banishment to the minor leagues in 2016, posting an .833 OPS in 152 games in 2017 and .820 in 2018, and there were stretches in which his defensive performance was as good as anyone playing the position. But there continued to be a daily mystery about the manner in which Puig would go about his business -- his timeliness at work, his preparation, how he would take his at-bats. Sometimes he was locked in and disciplined, a lot of times he wasn't.
In the Dodgers' moves this winter, there seems to be an effort to build more consistency.