October 26, 2014 – Tragedy struck as St. Louis Cardinals’ top prospect Oscar Taveras, 22, and his 18-year-old girlfriend were killed in a car accident in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. The news hit the Cardinals organization and their fans hard, along with baseball fans across the globe. There was nobody outside of Taveras’ family, however, that felt the loss more than the Cardinals’ young pitching prospect Carlos Martinez.
Martinez and Taveras had grown up together, both from the Dominican Republic, and both working their way up the ranks of the St. Louis organization. “El Fenómeno,” as Taveras had been nicknamed, made his MLB debut on May 31, 2014.