Baseball lost an exuberant young star who would have frequented the top of pitching leaderboards for years.
On Sunday morning, Jose Fernandez and two other men were killed in a boating accident. The Miami Marlins pitcher, who was 24, had far more greatness on and off the field to offer.
It wouldn’t be right to leave out Fernandez when discussing 2016’s premier performers. His 2.86 ERA doesn’t fully depict his domination. Some better indicators of his pitching awesomeness include his 12.49 strikeouts per nine innings (K/9) and 2.29 fielding independent pitching (FIP), both of which lead all qualified starters.
Yet those numbers are obsolete compared to the joy he brought everyone. As others fought over baseball’s unwritten code, he smiled. When things didn’t go well, he still smiled.
His tragic death has created a massive void nobody can fill. As a result, the final look at the season’s category leaders features fewer pitching stats. It’s not the same without Fernandez.