Oscar Taveras

He earned the Midwest League batting title with the highest average in the league since 1956.

He was actually 31 plate appearances short of qualifying; however, his adjusted batting average after adding the hitless at-bats still gave him the title.

Oscar Francisco Taveras (June 19, 1992 October 26, 2014) was a Dominican–Canadian professional baseball outfielder who played one season for the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He was the first Cardinals minor leaguer to win the MWL batting title since Brendan Ryan in 2004.

After winning the Midwest League batting title at age 19, Taveras began to garner notice outside the Cardinals organization.

Known as "El Fenómeno" (Spanish for "The Phenomenon") in the Dominican Republic, the Cardinals signed him at age 16 in 2008 as an international amateur free agent and he made his MLB debut in 2014.

Over six minor league seasons, he batted .321 with a .519 slugging percentage.

He played all three outfield positions while spending most of the time in center field.

The St. Louis Cardinals signed Taveras as an international amateur free agent on November 25, 2008 for $145,000.

They assigned him to the rookie league Dominican Summer League Cardinals the next season.

Although he hit just .265 with one home run (HR) and 42 runs batted in (RBI) in 65 games, Taveras earned a promotion to the Johnson City Cardinals of the Rookie-level Appalachian League in 2010.

The talent which scouts had discovered in the Dominican Republic quickly actualized, as he hit .322 with eight HR and 43 RBI in 53 games.

The outfielder was the recipient of a litany of awards and won batting titles in two minor leagues, including hitting .386 for the Midwest League title in 2011.

The next year, he won the Texas League batting title and was the Texas League Player of the Year and Cardinals organization Player of the Year.

Taveras earned another promotion to the Quad Cities River Bandits of the Class A Midwest League (MWL) in 2011 and spent the entire season there.

From May 11 to June 11, he was out of action due to a hamstring injury.

Despite missing a full month, his hitting continued to improve by obtaining 33 multi-hit games, 17 three-hit contests and five four-hit games.

Further, he earned two MWL Player of the Week (PoW) awards.

The first was for the week of July 17, after batting .600 (15 hits in 25 at bats) with five multi-hit games, 10 runs scored and five RBI.

The second PoW award Taveras earned with the River Bandits was for the week ending August 28.

He batted .581 (18–31) with another five multi-hit games, two home runs and 11 RBI.

That week, he also achieved three three-hit games and two four-hit games.

After coming off the bench in the August 28 game against Burlington, he went 3-for-3 with a home run and missed hitting for the cycle by a double.

For the season, Taveras batted .386 with a .444 on-base percentage (OBP), .584 slugging percentage (SLG), eight HR and 62 RBI in 78 games.

Baseball America named him the Cardinals' third-best prospect prior to the 2012 season and ranked him 74th in all of baseball.

The Cardinals assigned him to play for the Springfield Cardinals of the Class AA Texas League.

He spent the entire season there, playing 124 games before participating in winter league play.

With prodigious batting skills, Taveras was a consensus top-five minor league prospect in 2013 and 2014.

He elicited comparisons to former MLB outfielder and fellow Dominican Vladimir Guerrero—with a powerful and smooth, balanced stroke, Taveras successfully hit pitches well outside of the strike zone.

Also similar to Guerrero, he possessed a strong and accurate throwing arm.

On May 31, 2014, Taveras homered in his major league debut against the San Francisco Giants and went on to hit .239 in 80 regular season games, playing mostly right field.

He also hit a game-tying home run in Game 2 of the 2014 National League Championship Series against the Giants.

On October 26, 2014, he died in a car accident in the Dominican Republic shortly after the Cardinals were eliminated from the playoffs.

Originally from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, Oscar Taveras grew up in a town called Sosúa.

He began taking interest in baseball early in life.

According to his father, Francisco Taveras, at about age five, he started to call himself "El Fenómeno," which is Spanish for "The Phenomenon".

"He would say, 'I’m going to make you the happiest dad in the world. I want to be a star. I want to be a major leaguer. I’m the phenomenon. I’m the best,'" recounted his father.

Taveras' father was an outfielder in the Milwaukee Brewers' minor league system.

Taveras lived in Montreal from ages 12 to 16 and obtained Canadian citizenship.

Afterwards, he returned to the Dominican Republic; had he stayed in Canada, he would have entered the draft after high school.