The baseball family is mourning the loss of two of its members, with news of Yordano Ventura’s and Andy Marte’s deaths casting a sadness over the sport.
Ventura, the ace of the Kansas City Royals’ pitching staff, and Marte, a former major league infielder, died Saturday in separate car accidents in their native Dominican Republic.
The Kansas City Royals announced Ventura’s death Sunday in a statement. He was 25 years old.
Ventura pitched three-plus seasons with the Royals, helping them reach the World Series in 2014 and win it in 2015. He dedicated one start in his first Fall Classic to the memory of Oscar Tavares, who died in an October 2014 car accident in the Dominican Republic.
Traffic authorities say Marte died when a car he was driving hit a house, according to The Associated Press. He was 33 years old.
Marte broke into the majors with the Atlanta Braves in 2005. The Boston Red Sox acquired him in December of that year, but they traded him to the Cleveland Indians before the 2006 season. He played five seasons with Cleveland before playing in the Minor Leagues within the Pittsburgh Pirates, Los Angeles Angels and Arizona Diamondbacks organizations. He returned to the majors with Arizona for a brief spell in 2014.
Marte’s big-league career ended that year on a day when he faced Ventura.
Their lives tragically ended on the same day in early 2017.
Thumbnail photo via Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports Images
