Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chávez, gave troubled New York Mets’ closer, Francisco Rodriguez a call on Sunday, according to David Waldstein of The New York Times. Chávez told Rodriguez to tame his behavior but told him that the nation was still very proud of him.

“The day before yesterday I called El Kid Rodriguez because he got into a problem over there,” Chávez said in Spanish.

“It appears that he hit his father-in-law,” Chávez continued. “I don’t know, they were arguing, and they put him in jail for a few hours. I called him and said, ‘Kid, what happened to you?’ He said, ‘I’m here, President, heading to the stadium.’ He was entering the stadium.’

“We love you, Kid,” Chávez continued. “Control your impulses. The Kid Rodriguez. The pride of all of us. Young man of this nation. Of course, over there in a difficult world. Difficult.”

Rodriguez was placed on the disqualified list on Tuesday due injuries sustained to him thumb believed to have been injured during the assault on his girlfriends’ father, Carlos Pena, last week. At the time, the Mets had full intent on making the remainder of his contract non-guaranteed. Rodriguez has approximately $3.1 million due to him this season and $11.5 million due to him next season for a total of $14.6 million.