LOS ANGELES >> The tragic death of 24-year-old Miami Marlins ace Jose Fernandez rippled out across the baseball world Sunday morning, leaving sadness from coast to coast.
“Kind of disbelief, almost like it couldn’t be true,” Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes said of his reaction when he heard the news. “Just incredibly sad and shocked like everybody else.
“It’s just crazy to think of. He was the Miami Marlins.”
Barnes was a minor-league teammate of Fernandez in the Marlins’ farm system and caught Fernandez’s second start as a professional with the Jamestown Jammers in September 2011. Both were 2011 draft picks of the Marlins — Fernandez in the first round and Barnes in the fifth — and were teammates briefly in Single-A before Fernandez shot to the major leagues.