Meh. Even if Puig does turn out to be a star, I can't fault the Cubs for not offering him more than they gave Soler (although who knows, maybe they were the higher bidder). Maybe the reports are downplaying his abilities, but I doubt they are wrong about how raw he is. If you want to pay $42 million to someone that raw, its your risk. Obviously Soler is quite raw too but it seems like he's been scouted quite a bit more and seems to grade out higher that this guy. Were the Dodgers in on Soler at all? Might just be a case of the Dodgers seeing all these Cubans go for big money, and realizing that were less than a week from never being able to spend freely on international players, and knowing that Puig is almost surely the last opportunity to do so, so the new ownership group bit and tried to make a splash. I think there's more at play here than 'the Dodgers felt he has $42 million talent'. In a vaccuum, this would be absolutely idiotic spending, and while it still seems pretty stupid, given the scenarios at play, it makes a little bit more sense.