Pittsburgh Pirates News: Jose Castillo Tragically Passes Away

(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
(Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

The Pittsburgh Pirates had a former player pass away late last night in a car accident.  He is a player that many fans will remember.

The Pittsburgh Pirates organization saw a former player pass away last night.  Jose Castillo and Luis Valbuena both were tragically killed in a car accident late last night in Venezuela after a Winter League game.  According to reports, a loose rock rolled out in front of their car which was being driven by another player by the name of Carlos Rivero.  Apparently, the car hit the rock and swerved off the road leading to the fatal crash.

All three players from the Winter League Team, the Cardenales de Lara, passed away.  Valbuena who played the last two seasons with the Los Angeles Angels likely still had a few big league seasons ahead of him at just 33 years of age.  Meanwhile, Jose Castillo has not played in the league since 2008 and was 37 years of age. Here is the tweet that announced the tragedy which comes from a Venezuelan media member by the name of Efrain Zavarce (the tweet has been translated):

“A member of the management of @CardenalesDice me confirms the tragic news of the death of Luis Valbuena and José Castillo. The traffic accident occurred in Yaracuy. Carlos Rivero, who was able to save his life, was also in the wrecked vehicle.”

Of course, Castillo played a few seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates and at one time was considered one of their young and up and coming players.  In total, he played in parts of four seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2004 to 2007. In his Bucco career, he batted  .256/.297/.380 with 33 home runs in 465 games.  After the Pittsburgh Pirates, Castillo played his final season with the San Fransisco Giants and Houston Astros.

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It has been far too often that players have been involved in offseason tragedies of late.  Over the last five years, Major League Baseball has seen several players pass in offseason tragedies. St. Louis Cardinal’s outfielder Oscar Taveras (22 years of age) and Kansas City Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura (25 years of age) lost their lives in car wrecks as well.  Of course, there was also the tragedy of Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez who was killed in a boating accident. It is terrible to see these things happen, and once again baseball is in mourning for Valbuena and Castillo.