Miguel Elias Gonzalez, a minor-league pitcher in the Baltimore Orioles’ farm system, died in a car accident this past Saturday in the Dominican Republic, according to a press release from the organization. Gonzalez has no relation to the Rangers pitcher of the same first and last name who once pitched with the Baltimore organization.
The Orioles held a moment of silence to honor Gonzalez before tonight’s game against the Boston Red Sox. Dan Duquette, the Orioles’ Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, gave a somber statement on the passing of the 21 year-old:
“Our organization is deeply saddened by the tragic passing of Miguel Gonzalez. Miguel was beloved by his teammates and coaches in the Dominican Republic. Our thoughts are with his family and friends during this very difficult time.”
Gonzalez was signed as an international free agent in 2014. He had pitched exclusively in the Dominican Summer League in his young career, showing some potential with a fastball that reached the mid-90s on the radar gun.
The tragic passing of Gonzalez is, unfortunately, not the first to occur on the roads of the Dominican Republic. In recent years, prominent Dominican players Yordano Ventura, Oscar Taveras, and Andy Marte have all perished in traffic accidents in their home country.
MLBTR joins those around the game in extending its condolences to Gonzalez’s family, friends, and teammates.
Absolutely horrible. Another young life lost far too soon. My thoughts and prayers are with his family.
As always I only feel there is one reply to the tragic loss of a young life: I can only hope his family will eventually find peace.
What is going on down there that makes this happen?
The roads, if you can call them that, a terrible.
Hurricane Irma made it pretty much inhabitable and very difficult to travel.
Hurricane Irma did not hit us, just a few scattered rains and winds. What happens is that we drive recklessly and do not respect the traffic signs or speed limits, other than that many roads are old and narrow.
add to that they are young people who come from being very poor to being millionaires ($ DR) and who do not have a good advice from their relatives, because they do what they want, because they are seen as gods even by the authorities. the problem is deeper than it seems.
no lights on the roads, sharp turns, no guardrails and no police working at night. Sad to think these seemingly easy things to change haven’t but hopefully someday they get the funding for these things that can save lives.
Prayers for the family
Thankfully the tone of the article was different than other past player deaths (or retirements), when sabermetrics were used and concluded they had a below-average career. In an obituary…really? Lay off the stats. Thank you for continued improvement and sympathy. THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS go out to his friends and family.
I’m really not sure what you’re referring to, but please send any such examples through the contact form so that I can assess them. It is often tough to write about players without referencing their career paths — good, bad, or indifferent — but obviously we’re not worried about the baseball side of things except to the extent we want to give context to the person’s place in the game.
I looked through the Ventura and marte articles after this post was made. Stats were referenced, but there was nothing wrong with it that I seen. It definitely wasn’t disrespectful
Just off the top of my head I remember something from the Marte article that made me think something along the first commenter’s thoughts, but it could’ve been something in the comment section and not the article, not sure, and I haven’t even verified that to be true at all. Just an inkling I have. You guys do fine with these Jeff. It’s a sensitive topic and I suppose a few will always be unhappy anyways.
extremely unfortunate. prayers for his family and friends
There’s too much of this happening now. I know it’s not realistic, but MLB/controlling teams need to find a way to have these players bring their families over here so we don’t have this keep happening…too much young talent losing their lives
Have to disagree with this. You can’t take in everyone just because. He played baseball in the DR
In the same way that plenty of people refuse to move away from the rural, poor areas where they grew up in the US, plenty of people want to continue to live in their home countries – even if they may not have the same opportunities as they would in the US.
Rob Manfred needs to create a task force that spearheads a joint effort between MLB, teams, MLBPA, current and retired players, US government, Latin American governments, and possibly additional organizations/entities. This task force will be responsible for improving infrastructure and road conditions across Latin America. I am sick and tired of these players losing their lives in road accidents. While accidents are unavoidable, improving the infrastructure and road conditions in Latin America will not only lower the likelihood of fatality in an accident, but also improve the overall quality of life of EVERY citizen in Latin America. It’s a huge project but must be done in order to minimize future tragedy.
A 10 entity coalition to build roads,huh?
With due respect, what does MLB have to do with a country’s roads? They see people getting killed every day and they do little to nothing about it. It’s sad. It’s pathetic, but it has zilch to do with baseball.
From a purely business standpoint (I promise I’m not completely heartless), these players are assets worth millions of dollars to teams. These players generate millions more to additional entities through sponsorships and advertisements. On top of all of that, these players have a positive impact on the community that no dollar amount will ever quantify. While a team has insurance on players to recoup contract money lost in these kinds of extreme circumstances, the team will never earn future revenue from a superstar-caliber player. There will be no additional revenue streams because of the loss. On top of that, the impact of the loss and an inability to replace production can potentially cause teams to lose more than win, which leads to additional loss of revenue.
The team needs to protect its assets. Because the assets are human, the team can’t just forbid them from driving around their home country. These players need a sense of freedom, especially after spending 9+ months away from their family in a foreign country. The best way to protect these players without sacrificing their freedom is creating a task force that builds a better quality of life.
Dont know about this incident in particular but most of the others have a common cause that can not be mentioned here. Tragic in any event regardless of cause and condolences to the family. Perhaps MLB and MLBPA can one day work together to reduce the number of fatalities but at the moment both seem content to pretend the problem does not exist.
Prayers to his family, teammates, and friends.
Rest In Peace Young Man. Very Sad.