http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/26/sports/baseball/jose-fernandez-dead-miami-marlins.html 2016-09-25 17:31:09 Marlins Pitcher Jose Fernandez Is Killed in a Boating Accident The team announced the death of its top pitcher in Miami Beach === The “The Miami Marlins organization is devastated by the tragic loss of José Fernández. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this very difficult time,” Chief Petty Officer Nyxolyno Cangemi told The Associated Press that a Coast Guard patrol spotted an overturned boat at 3:30 a.m. on a jetty near Government Cut, Florida. The bodies were discovered a short time later. Fernandez’s backstory was one from a baseball fairy tale. As a teenager, he was jailed for trying to defect from Cuba. He finally made it on his fourth attempt, at age 15 in 2008, and saved his mother from drowning when she fell overboard on their way to Mexico. He emerged as a baseball star at Braulio Alonso High School in Tampa, Fla., and was chosen 14th overall by the Marlins in the 2011 draft. He signed for $2 million and was in the majors by 2013. Fernandez had never pitched above Class A, but he made the All-Star team and was named National League Rookie of the Year. “Six years ago I was trying to come to the United States and I was in jail, thinking about one day playing in the big leagues,” Fernandez said the next winter, as he accepted the award at the baseball writers’ dinner in New York. “I’m here now, next to all these guys.” Fernandez needed reconstructive elbow surgery the next season, but he returned in 2015 and continued to dominate. He was an All-Star again this season and went 16-8 with a 2.86 earned run average. He led the major leagues in strikeouts per nine innings, with 12.5. It is not a stretch to say that Fernandez, though very young, was on a Hall of Fame trajectory. He had a 95 m.p.h. fastball, a mastery of four pitches, and in four seasons he always had an E.R.A. below 3.00. Overall he was 38-17 with a 2.58 E.R.A. in 76 starts, with 589 strikeouts in just 471 1/3 innings. Major League Baseball Comissioner Rob Manfred released a statement saying the baseball world was “stunned and devastated.” “He was one of our game’s great young stars who made a dramatic impact on and off the field since his debut in 2013,” Manfred said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, the Miami Marlins organization and all of the people he touched in his life.”