Andy Marte, 1983-2017

Sunday was a sad morning in the baseball fraternity. The big news was that Yordano Ventura died in a car wreck at 25. The other (and equally tragic news) was that former Indians top prospect Andy Marte also was killed in a single-car accident at age 33.

When news first broke – I thought this was a single incident somehow involving both players. It was two separate incidences in an odd twist of fate.

What I remember about Andy Marte is he was supposed to be the Cleveland Indians top prospect around 2006 or 2007 that joined Grady Sizemore at the Major League level in pursuit of an Indians dynasty. I heard enormous things about Marte, and was excited to get an extended look at him.

The final scroll will show that it never really happened. He flamed out of Cleveland in 2010, making a brief comeback with Arizona in 2014 which was more of the same. He was a .208 career hitter in 308 big league games.