A news release from the Florida Highway Patrol said a white Mercedes driven by the 23-year-old Cuban defector was pulled over around 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Authorities said Puig was arrested and charged with reckless driving and taken to the Collier County Jail for processing. Puig lives in the Miami area during the offseason.
Dodgers spokesman Joe Jareck declined to comment on Puig's latest arrest.
In April, when he was still in the minors, Puig was charged with reckless driving and speeding after Chattanooga, Tenn., police clocked him going 97 mph in a 50 mph zone. The charges were dismissed in November after Puig completed community service in Los Angeles.
Puig was an instant sensation with the Dodgers last season, batting .319 with 19 home runs and 42 RBIs. He helped them reach the NL championship series, where they lost to St. Louis, and was runner-up for the Rookie of the Year award.
Puig signed a $42 million, seven-year contract in June 2012, a record for a Cuban defector. He received a $12 million signing bonus and made $2 million last season.
STAYING OUT OF THE WAY
Give Rangers owner Bob Simpson credit for paying attention to his Arlington neighbor.
When asked whether he'd like to be the baseball version of Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones, Simpson was quick to say no.
"I don't, and for the reasons everyone else wishes he wasn't," Simpson said Friday, according to ESPN Dallas.com. "I like Jerry, but we've got great people, so leave it to them."
GM Jon Daniels is the one of the people who's left to build the team, and it sounds as though he was given a few more bucks than expected after trading for Prince Fielder and signing Shin-Soo Choo. Simpson told reporters the team's payroll is now in the $135 million range, up from a recent estimate of $120 million.
YOUTH IS OVERRATED
J.P. Ricciardi was a GM in Toronto. Now he's an assistant to Sandy Alderson with the Mets. New York is in the middle stages of its rebuilding and is now adding veterans (Curtis Granderson, Chris B. Young, maybe Stephen Drew) to a younger core. To hear Ricciardi talk, he'd be more aggressive in adding vets if he were running a club.
"One of the things that is happening in baseball right now, that I scratch my head with . . . young players are so overvalued right now, and I think falls in with the draft picks, too," Ricciardi told Boston radio station WEEI. "No one builds through the draft. You add through the draft."
Ricciardi was referencing the fact that the Mets would have to give up a draft pick to sign Drew. They surrendered a second-rounder to sign Granderson.
"You can’t build a team through the draft because they just don’t all work out. But you can supplement your system, and I get all that. But if you’re telling me I have a chance to get Curtis Granderson over a second round pick I think I’m going to take my chances with a proven major league player as opposed to maybe a high school or college kid that may or may not become Curtis Granderson," Ricciardi said.
"Hindsight is 20-20 and we can all go back and look at guys where they were drafted and what happened to them, but in the end, the major league players, the proven major league player, has a lot more value to me than the Double A kid, the Triple A kid or even the kid who is drafted. I wouldn’t hesitate to give up a draft pick. If I’m the Houston Astros or a club like that who is still building, I might not be as engaged to do it. But if I’m a club that is looking to get closer to being good, I might be more inclined to do it."
Contributors: Tom Gatto, The Associated Press
