Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras, a rising meteor of talent who was considered one of the top hitting prospects in the game since his first at-bat in the minor leagues, was killed in a car accident Sunday afternoon in his native Dominican Republic. He was 22.
Taveras and his girlfriend were both in the accident, which reportedly happened on a stretch of highway near his hometown of Sosua on the northern coast of the Dominican in Puerto Plata. His agent, Brian Mejia, confirmed that the accident had killed both Taveras and his girlfriend.
The Cardinals released a statement Sunday night expressing condolences and shock at the loss of the team’s youngest position player.
“I simply can’t believe it,” general manager John Mozeliak said in a club statement. “I first met Oscar when he was (16 years old) and will forever remember him as a wonderful young man who was a gifted athlete with an infectious love for life who lived every day to the fullest.”
Mozeliak and manager Mike Matheny discussed a week ago how they expected Taveras to arrive at spring training in February and compete for the starting job in right field. Matheny said he expected Taveras to “be a star.”
Mozeliak and Matheny traveled together to the Dominican Republic on Monday.
The young outfielder had annually been the Cardinals’ top prospect since he was a teen, and both Baseball America and MLB.com ranked Taveras as one of the top two hitting prospects in the minors each of the past two seasons. He made his major-league debut May 31 and in his second at-bat hit a solo home run that led the Cardinals to a 2-0 victory at Busch Stadium. Beaming, he accepted a curtain call from the crowd with a wave of his batting helmet.
“We are all stunned and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of the youngest members of the Cardinals family,” Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a statement. “Oscar was an amazing talent with a bright future who was taken from us well before his time. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends tonight.”
The Puerto Plata police confirmed to Dominican reporters that the cause of death was the car accident. Officials with the Dominican winter league also announced the deaths of the outfielder and his girlfriend. A Dominican newspaper identified his girlfriend as Edilia Arvelo. She was 18.
The cause of the accident was not immediately known.
“We’re still investigating at the scene,” Lopez Reyes, a lieutenant junior with the Puerto Plata police, told USA Today. “We’ve had some heavy rainfall here lately. It might have contributed to the accident.”
The Dominican winter league posted pictures on its Twitter feed of players from both teams at games Sunday night gathering in prayer or huddling together after hearing the news.
A few Cardinals players who could be reached expressed shock and sadness after hearing first reports or from other teammates about the accident. Second baseman Kolten Wong, who advanced through the minors as a teammate of Taveras, wrote on Twitter: “My heart truly hurts to hear the passing of Oscar! I’ve played with him every year and we truly lost a great person!”
The Cardinals signed Taveras in 2008 to a $145,000 bonus. Within a few years, Cardinals officials, including Mozeliak, openly and repeatedly called him the finest hitting prospect the organization had since Albert Pujols, the three-time National League Most Valuable Player.
In his first three professional seasons with a domestic affiliate, Taveras won league championships. He was a league MVP, a Class A batting champ, and a threat to win the Triple Crown at Class AA — leading the league in average, homers and RBIs — all before his 21st birthday.
When the Cardinals were unsure of Carlos Beltran’s health during the 2012 playoffs, the team discussed promoting Taveras immediately to make his debut during that postseason. Beltran did not miss any time and Taveras spent another year in the minors. That season was abbreviated by an ankle injury that needed surgery in the fall of 2013 to correct and that would later limit his ability to win a job during this past spring training.
Twice this past season, the Cardinals cleared room in the starting lineup for the left-handed-hitting outfielder. He was promoted in late May to take part in the team’s stretch of games against American League teams. On July 1, he was promoted again with a promise of a starter’s at-bats. Later that month, the Cardinals traded Allen Craig to Boston to free up additional playing time for Taveras — so highly regarded was his talent.
He hit .239 with a .312 slugging percentage and three home runs in 80 games with the team. With others producing more often, Taveras was used mostly as a pinch-hitter and part-time player in the final month of the season and the playoffs. He went three for seven (.429) with an RBI and a home run as a pinch-hitter in the postseason. In Game 2 of the National League championship series, Taveras hit a home run that helped the Cardinals to their only victory in the series against the San Francisco Giants.
That solo home run came with the quick, power-packed swing that the Cardinals had been eager to unleash and had long advertised as part of their future. It also came with Taveras’ signature flourish — a long follow-through, bat still pointed skyward, like a magician’s wand after his finale.
That was Taveras’ next-to-last at-bat.
“All of us throughout Major League Baseball are in mourning … shocked by the heartbreaking news of the accident involving Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras and his girlfriend,” commissioner Bud Selig said from the World Series. “Oscar, a young member of the baseball family, was full of promise and at the dawn of a wonderful career in our game, evident in his game-tying home run against the Giants exactly two weeks ago. I extend my deepest condolences to the families and friends of both individuals, as well as to Oscar’s teammates and the entire Cardinals organization.”
This is the third time in the past 13 years that the Cardinals’ clubhouse has dealt with the death of an active player. In June 2002, pitcher Darryl Kile died in his sleep at the team’s hotel in Chicago before a game against the Cubs. Early in the 2007 season, reliever Josh Hancock was killed in an alcohol-related car accident on Interstate 64 not far from Busch Stadium. A painting of Kile still hangs in the Cardinals’ clubhouse, and both players’ numbers — 57 and 32, respectively — have hung at the ballpark as memorials to the players.
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