St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras was killed in a car crash in the Dominican Republic this weekend, the team confirmed in a statement on Sunday.
Taveras, considered one of baseball's brightest prospects, made his MLB debut earlier this year for the National League Central champions. The 22-year-old posted a .239 average and hit three home runs in 80 games.
"We are all stunned and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of the youngest members of the Cardinals family," team Chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. said in a statement. "Oscar was an amazing talent with a bright future who was taken from us well before his time."
Taveras was driving a 2014 Chevrolet Camaro at the time of the crash on a highway between the beaches of Sosua and Cabarete in Puerto Plata, approximately 215 miles north of the capital of Santo Domingo, said Col. Diego Pesqueira of the Metropolitan Transportation Agency, according to the Associated Press.
"He wasn't carrying documents at the time of the accident, but his body was identified by family members," Pesqueira said.
Taveras' girlfriend, 18-year-old Edilia Arvelo, was also killed in the crash, which occurred when Taveras lost control of the vehicle, according to the Associated Press, citing police in nearby Puerto Plata and local newspapers.
Taveras was on his way home from Jameo to Sosua, according to multiple media reports.
"I simply can't believe it," Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said in a release. "I first met Oscar when he was 16 years old and will forever remember him as a wonderful young man who was a gifted athlete with an infectious love for life who lived every day to the fullest."
Taveras was a teenager when he signed with St. Louis as an international free agent in 2008. He homered against the Giants' Yusmeiro Petit in his big league debut on May 31. He also had a clutch solo homerun in the seventh inning of Game 2 in the NL Championship Series against San Francisco.
"All of us throughout Major League Baseball are in mourning this evening," baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement, according to the AP. "Oscar, a young member of the baseball family, was full of promise and at the dawn of a wonderful career in our game, evident in his game-tying home run against the Giants exactly two weeks ago."
The team is planning on releasing more information on funeral arrangements at a later time.
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