Major League Baseball

Puig hires full-time driver following Florida arrest

Published Jan. 9, 2014 3:55 p.m. ET

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These days Yasiel Puig is contrite and appears to have learned his lesson following his most recent arrest in Florida for reckless driving.

"He feels as bad as I've ever heard a player," President and CEO of the LA Dodgers Stan Kasten told ESPN Radio on Thursday.

Puig was arrested last month for driving 110 miles per hour in a 70 miles per hour zone. It was his second reckless driving bust of 2013. While playing for Double-A Chattanooga before he was called up to the major leagues, Puig was arrested for driving 97 miles per hour in a 50 miles per hour zone.

According to Kasten, this is a problem Puig says he never wants to have happen again. So now he's taken a drastic step to make sure it doesn't.

"He has stopped driving, by the way," Kasten said. "I give him credit for taking that step, if nothing else."  

Puig now has his cousin as his full-time driver.

Kasten, who went to Chattanooga to speak with Puig following his first reckless driving incident last April, has spoken to Puig multiple times since his most recent arrest in Florida, including "another long talk" Thursday morning.

During their conversation in Chattanooga following the first arrest, Kasten expressed to Puig what the organization expects from him and ensured that he knew this type of behavior would not be tolerated in the big leagues because the media would be all over it. On Thursday, Puig brought up the previous conversation to Kasten realizing the Dodgers president was right.

Kasten who admits he was "disappointed" in his outfielder says Puig is "disappointed in himself." He'd soon like to publicly express his sorrow and the Dodgers organization will help him with that cause, Kasten says.

"He knows he dodged a bullet," Kasten said.

Puig was on the right track towards carving a positive image for himself this offseason. On multiple occasions, he hosted local little leaguers at Dodger Stadium for workouts.

"He knows also that he hurt himself," Kasten said. "Here he is trying to build a reputation, work in the community, build him up as the right kind of a person and he knows that he has taken a step back because of his own actions. He feels terrible about it."

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