CIUDAD BOLIVAR, Venezuela — A former Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins pitcher died in his native Venezuela of pneumonia that baseball colleagues say was made worse by medicine shortages in the crisis-wracked nation.
Marcos Carvajal pitched for the Rockies in 2005 and briefly for the Marlins two seasons later. He later returned to Venezuela and played for a team in his hometown of Ciudad Bolivar and at the time of his death was working as a youth coach in Bolivar state.
Alejandro Castillejo, president of the state's baseball association, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Carvajal checked himself into a hospital in December suffering from a respiratory illness.