Home plate was a mighty big thing to Yasiel Puig when he first stepped into a major-league batter’s box one year ago today. From the inside black to the outside, the world was his oyster. Puig swung and swung and swung some more, and the approach appeared to work wonders. He was batting .443 a month into his career.

These days, Puig’s name has disappeared from the list of baseball’s freest swingers. He’s even managed to stay out of the police blotter. But if the first year of Puig’s career has taught us anything, it’s that a free-spirited approach to baseball — and life — can blend beautifully with a dash of discipline.

On May 20, the Dodgers were in New York to play the Mets. Puig went 3 for 4 with a walk and scored twice in a 9-4 win. Back at the team hotel that night, he had an idea. On the way to the lobby, he spotted a SportsNet LA cameraman and invited him to head out, camera in hand.

“And he goes to explore the Empire State Building because he’d never seen it,” said Lon Rosen, the Dodgers’ chief marketing officer. “Then he goes to explore Times Square.”

Puig shared his first impressions of the bright lights and tall buildings with the camera. He snapped pictures with fans and police officers who recognized him on the street.

During a different road trip last month to Washington, D.C., Puig visited the White House. Some team officials didn’t find out until pictures of Puig’s tour appeared on his Instagram account. It seems the world away from baseball is Puig’s oyster now, too.

While his world expands, home plate is shrinking. Puig’s swing rate is down, from 58.2 percent in June 2013 to 42.3 percent last month. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said that’s the biggest difference from when Puig debuted a year ago.

“This year he’s shown that he’s not going to chase,” Mattingly said. “I think his game has matured from the standpoint of still with all the energy but less out of control, where he’s throwing the ball to the right place most of the time, still being aggressive on the bases but not running into outs.”

Statistically speaking, May was the best calendar month of his career since his torrid debut last June: a .398 batting average, .492 on-base percentage, eight home runs and 25 RBIs in 28 games. For the season, he trails only Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki in batting average, .347 to .350 entering play Monday. Different approaches, similar results.

It didn’t happen overnight. When Puig invited teammates in March to offer constructive criticism, one point of emphasis were Puig’s repeated mistakes — namely, missing cutoff men and running into outs on the bases. They were lessons Puig should have learned the hard way.

This year, he’s mostly learned the easy way: By listening to teammates and to hitting coach Mark McGwire, by making a friendly wager with teammate Adrian Gonzalez before each series to see who draws more walks.

“I think as a young player there’s all kinds of things you continue to grow with,” Mattingly said. “Going through a lot of experiences I think are good for him. That meeting’s probably good for him. Adrian, that little game they play, is probably good for him. I think him struggling with his throws in the playoffs, him kind of gaining some criticism there through that is, in the end, good for him because he matures through that.

“Your experiences as a young player, if you learn your lessons, they’re all good for you at the end of the day.”

The same is true off the field.

The day after he visited Times Square, Puig wasn’t done exploring. He skipped the team bus and went out on his own again, this time with no cameramen.

“I happened to go by the Twin Towers and I actually had never heard the story before about the tragedy that happened there,” Puig said through an interpreter. “I was just going around, and the firefighters there (at the Ten House station, closest to Ground Zero) invited me to come in.

“So I went in and they told me their story about how they were the first responders for that tragedy. We became friends. It was really great to hear the story first-hand from them. I was really touched. I came back, became friends with them and as a thank-you sent them a couple gifts — a baseball and bats for their station — because I was so touched they knew who I was. I’m just happy they’re my fans all the way out there.”

Puig managed to make it to the game on time. That keeps his superiors happy.

Rosen said that Puig has resumed driving on a limited basis for the first time since his speeding incident last December in Florida. He hasn’t been late since the Dodgers’ home opener. Puig was benched for that game but wasn’t disciplined further; club officials believe that Puig genuinely forgot the game began three hours earlier than usual.

It was unbecoming of a superstar of Puig’s magnitude. So was the speeding ticket and the concurrent arrest in December. The overthrows aren’t what you would expect from a player Mattingly and Davey Lopes called the best defensive right fielder in the game, either.

“I’ve talked about this with a guy like Rickey Henderson — a guy who can do so many things, it’s almost a curse sometimes because we always ask for more,” Mattingly said. “Yasiel hits .350, now we want him to be a perfect base stealer. He does that, we want him to do this. With all that talent, I think you’re always asking. I think there’s still more there. At times we ask a lot.”

Puig gives a lot, too. Rosen said that a charity drive Sunday outside Dodger Stadium was Puig’s idea. It was also Puig’s idea to have his mother throw out the ceremonial first pitch to her son prior to a game last month and for them to announce “it’s time for Dodger baseball” together over the stadium PA.

Thanks to off-season lessons in Florida, Puig’s English is improving. He’s up to Spanglish — that might be the best description of a language he conducted an interview in Monday — but Rosen believes that Puig will be fluent before long.

There might just be a well-groomed superstar behind Puig’s intrigue. One year into his career, he seems to have found just the right mix of reckless abandon and discipline.

“He emerged on this city and this country very quickly,” Rosen said. “He went from an unknown to really very well-known very quickly. There’s really no way to prepare for that. I don’t know anybody that can step right out and do it perfectly. As we all know, he’s a bit of a work in progress and he wants to learn.”