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The Miami Marlins prevented third baseman Martin Prado from hitting free agency at season’s end by signing him to a contract extension Tuesday. 

According to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald, the Marlins inked the 32-year-old veteran to a three-year deal that will pay him a total of $40 million through 2019. MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro confirmed the move.

Prado is in the midst of a strong campaign, hitting .305 with seven home runs, 73 RBI and 68 runs scored.

Miami acquired the 11th-year veteran in a trade with the New York Yankees prior to the start of the 2015 season.

Prado spent the first seven years of his career with the Atlanta Braves before stints with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Yanks and Marlins. He was named to his first and only All-Star team in 2010.

While Prado has exclusively manned third base in 2016, he has played all over the diamond during his career, spending extensive time at second base and the corner outfield spots.

Prado has been a fixture in the No. 2 spot of the Marlins lineup this season behind speedster Dee Gordon and in front of power hitters such as Christian Yelich, Giancarlo Stanton and Marcell Ozuna.

He has excelled at getting on base for Miami’s top hitters, and he is a big reason why the Marlins have surprised many with a 78-78 record so far this season.

Prado is an unheralded player who doesn’t receive much league-wide recognition, but his contributions are undeniable, and the fact that the Marlins managed to keep him means they have a great chance to be competitive in the National League playoff race once again next season.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Boston and New York have been adversaries since the original Hamilton walked Broadway in the late 18th century.

David Ortiz has been at the epicenter of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry for the past 14 seasons. Come 2017, neither Ortiz nor Alex Rodriguez will be an actor in this award-winning baseball melodrama that featured brawls during the 2003 American League Championship Series and beyond.

Ortiz, for one, is glad the era of on-field gladiators has passed.

“This is not the WWE. This is baseball at the highest level,” Ortiz told B/R during a Red Sox visit here in August. “It’s all good for the game. People don’t pay to come and watch us fight. People used to do that because of what it used to be. And that’s why people believe the intensity isn’t there. It’s there. We just don’t fight like we used to.”

The David Ortiz Goodbye Baseball tour makes its penultimate regular-season stop beginning Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox could clinch the American League East title with victory or a Toronto loss. The Yankees have planned a celebration for Ortiz on Thursday but have not released details.

“Playing in New York is very special,” Ortiz added when asked Saturday by B/R about his final trip to the Bronx as a player. “The fans are very into it. Every inning you have to be on your toes to make something happen. The New York Yankees, I have a lot of respect for that organization. Somehow, someway, you get connected to it [when you’re from] the Dominican Republic.

“When I was a kid, New York was an organization that was very well mentioned back in the Dominican. Everyone in the Dominican is aware of the Yankees. We kind of changed the Dominicans’ minds a little bit once me, Pedro [Martinez] and Manny [Ramirez] got together here.

“Now, I would say it’s pretty much 50-50 Red Sox-Yankees in the Dominican. But when I was a kid, every game you would see in the Dominican was coming from New York. There are 3 million Dominicans in New York, so that connection is always there. It’s always an honor and pleasure to play there.”

The 40-year-old Ortiz has somewhat brutally slashed .307/.397/.574 against the Yankees in his career with Minnesota and Boston, producing 53 home runs and 171 RBI. His two-run home run in the 12th inning of Game 4 during the 2004 ALCS ignited baseball’s biggest-ever postseason comeback.

Red Sox vs. Yankees hit warp speed with the sale of Babe Ruth to New York nearly a century ago. The teams’ enmity has endured a roller coaster of competitiveness since. The intensity hit crescendos in the late 1940s, the mid 1970s—erstwhile Boston pitcher Bill Lee once referred to the Yankees as “Billy Martin’s Brownshirts“—the late 1990s and in the first decade of the 21st century.

Fisticuffs aplenty came along for the ride.

Now, Red Sox vs. Yankees is enjoying a period of relative calm, at least when it comes to throwing punches.

“This is better,” Ortiz said in August. “Once you fight with someone, that guy becomes your enemy whether you like it or not. I don’t want to be having enemies in baseball. Once there’s a brawl going on and you’re throwing punches, people start getting injured.”

Fewer on-field melees does not mean the players’ competitiveness has waned.

“From that time until today, there are a lot of rules that have basically been added to the game,” Ortiz said. “Players have to approach things differently. It’s good for the game. You don’t want to send the wrong message that you have to fight to be able to earn respect or perform at this level.

“When I first came up and got hit, one of our pitchers [see: Martinez] would throw a close pitch to them. And same with the Yankees. And all of sudden, the evil would let loose. I think to avoid all this stuff, Major League Baseball passed all these rules to warn people or throw them out of the game if they throw at people on purpose.”

MLB‘s push to temper physical contact between players with disciplinary action sent the right message, at least as far as Ortiz is concerned.

“You come with your kids and family and you see players fighting 30, 40 feet away from you,” he said. “What is the mentality your kids are going to take away from that? You came to watch a baseball game. Not fighting. My kids questioned me and were asking, ‘Hey, Dad. What’s going on?’ That’s not the memory you want them to take home.

“It happens now but not as much. Now, we’re concerned about being suspended, missing games. MLB is on top of it big time. When a guy like me gets suspended for five or 10 games, it affects my ballclub. It affects me at some point, too. That’s not the image you want the fans to see.”

Another factor that has calmed tempers between the Red Sox and Yankees is the fact they have not met in the playoffs since Boston celebrated its Game 7 victory of the 2004 ALCS in the Bronx after erasing a 3-0 series lead. It could be said the victory was so devastating to New York that it had to tear down its old stadium and build a new one.

“I didn’t think we had that series won until the final out,” Ortiz said. “We were supposed to lose from day one. If I tell you after Game 5 or 6 we had them beaten, I’d be lying to you.”

As he did when he chose an Ultimate All-Star Team of His Era’s Biggest Stars for B/R in July, Ortiz spoke with reverence and respect about ex-Yankees Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, who were also key figures in the post-2000 act of this drama. The Red Sox honored both players with elaborate—if cheesy—ceremonies during their final stops at Fenway Park in 2014 and 2013, respectively.

“Mariano and D.J. were there forever,” Ortiz said.

He scoffed at the perception that Jeter wasn’t as tough as he was talented.

“What do these people want?” Ortiz said. “He was the one player you wanted to watch as another player. You cannot ask for more than he brought to the table. I’m talking about competing against him. Watching him play. Watching him handle his business.

“In my mind, he’s going to be the first player to go into the Hall of Fame with 100 percent of the vote. … Well, he should be. He did it all. The guy was perfect. Everything. The way he was as a player. The way he handled his business. The way he handled the media. The way he dealt with the fans. This guy was extraordinary.”

Ortiz’s farewell tour has morphed into a six-month-long episode of Antiques Roadshow. Among the items he has amassed are a custom surfboard plastered with an image of Ortiz at the 2016 All-Star Game courtesy of the San Diego Padres, 34 pounds (Get it?) of salmon from his original franchise (the Seattle Mariners), a giant bottle of cabernet from the Oakland A’s, cowboy boots and a giant belt buckle thanks to the Texas Rangers and the Baltimore bullpen phone he destroyed during an epic outburst in 2013.

“I’m keeping all that stuff in my garage. But I’m running out of room,” he said.

Red Sox vs. Yankees has morphed into its next chapter. A Boston fan buried a No. 34 Ortiz jersey during the construction of the new Yankee Stadium in 2008. It was later removed.

The Red Sox swept the Yankees in Boston two weeks ago. When the so-called experts write the history of the 2016 Red Sox, Hanley Ramirez’s three-run walk-off homer against New York on Sept. 15 could well be considered the final turning point. Boston hasn’t lost since and rides into the Bronx on an 11-game winning streak.

“You see the talent the Yankees have called up this season? The talent that we have here? The rivalry is going to continue,” Ortiz said. “They’re rebuilding that team very quickly. Talk about Mookie [Betts], [Xander] Bogaerts, Junior [Jackie Bradley]. The talent is there. These kids are still in the learning process. When you see the way Starlin Castro has been playing and behaving. And [Dellin] Betances. The way they’re doing things now. And that [Gary] Sanchez kid. You have a future Jorge Posada behind the plate. He has all the tools to be a great player.”

Ortiz told reporters in Boston on Sept. 16 that he expected to get booed (as reported by ESPN.com’s Scott Lauber) during his New York farewell but added that there is respect between himself and the Yankees faithful. He had a slightly more favorable forecast for his reception in the Bronx when asked about it by B/R here following the Red Sox’s 2-1 win over the Rays on Friday.

“Everywhere we go, we have a lot of fans. Getting into Fenway is tough. Every game is pretty much sold out. So our fans go everywhere we go,” said Ortiz, who was loudly cheered before every plate appearance here this past weekend.

Even in New York?

“Oh, yeah. Everywhere.”

As far as the departed A-Rod goes, Ortiz said in August he has taken the road of “forgive and forget.” Their once-deep friendship cooled after Rodriguez acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs and his lawyer apparently attempted to implicate Ortiz as a PED user in 2014.

“I’m not going to start naming all the other players, but some of them are God-like in Boston right now, and people seem to forget that,” Joe Tacopina told ESPN Radio back then.

Tacopina later said he was not referring to Ortiz.

Ortiz tested positive for PEDs during MLB’s pilot program in 2003. He maintained to B/R that he never knowingly used any banned substances or tested positive for PEDs since 2003.

Thankfully, the A-Rod-Ortiz feud did not end in a duel with pistols on the grass in the Bronx or at Fenway Park.

“I’ve known A-Rod for a long time,” Ortiz said. “I’ve been a friend. I have a good relationship. He got confused and did things the wrong way with me and a lot of people. But it’s forgotten. If there is something God would like me to do, it is forgive.”

Bill Speros is an award-winning journalist who writes the “Obnoxious Boston Fan” column for the Boston Herald. He covers baseball for Bleacher Report. He Tweets @RealOBF and @BillSperos.

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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. 

Begin Slideshow

While furious battles for MLB‘s four available wild-card berths will take place over the regular season’s final week, indirect competitions for the game’s highest individual honors are raging as well.

With only a handful of awards looking like they’re wrapped up, players (and managers) have one final chance to impress voters. Some will rise to the occasion, while others will fold under the pressure. These award races only make the last stretch all the more intriguing.

While statistics remain the driving force in calculating the odds on the pages that follow, both gut feeling and past voting trends played a part as well.

Begin Slideshow

The term “ace” gets tossed around too liberally. There’s more to it than simply being the best pitcher on your team.

The Washington Nationals‘ Max Scherzer, however, checks most of the ace boxes.

He’s got the gaudy strikeout totals, including an MLB-leading 267 entering play Tuesday. He’s earned the hardware—namely, a 2013 American League Cy Young Award with the Detroit Tigers. And he’s racked up the individual accomplishments, including a pair of no-hitters and a record-tying 20-strikeout game.

One thing Scherzer has never done? Taken a team on his back and carried it to World Series glory.

He’s had his share of playoff experience, and he’s logged some strong October starts. Now, after the Nats wrapped up the National League East on Saturday, Scherzer has a chance to etch his name in the alabaster of postseason lore.

The 32-year-old right-hander is having an exemplary season overall, but he’s been especially dominant in the second half, posting a 2.51 ERA in 13 starts with 103 strikeouts in 89.2 innings. He’s pitched into the seventh inning or later in each of his last seven outings and has won nine of his last 10 decisions.

“He is the epitome of a shutdown inning,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. “You give him some runs, and he knows how to close the door.”

He’s at the forefront of the NL Cy Young conversation, as USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale opined:

The question now is, can he keep it up when the lights get brightest?

Scherzer last pitched in the postseason in 2014. That year, he made a single start in the American League Division Series against the Baltimore Orioles and surrendered seven hits and five runs in a 12-3 loss.

His strongest playoff start came in Game 2 of the 2013 American League Championship Series against the Boston Red Sox, when he fanned 13 in seven innings and allowed just one run and two hits.

Overall, Scherzer’s playoff resume is checkered. There are gems, and there are flame-outs. His total line—a 3.73 ERA with 80 strikeouts in 62.2 innings—is solid but not transcendent.

The Nationals don’t need him to be transcendent to make a deep run. But it sure would help.

Second baseman Daniel Murphy, who is in the mix for the NL batting title, is out with a glute strain, per Janes. Stephen Strasburg, Scherzer’s running mate atop the Nats starting corps, is working his way back from an elbow injury and has yet to throw off a mound, let alone make a rehab start.

“I’d hate to see life without Daniel and life without [Strasburg],” Baker told Janes. “Those two are big horses.”

If either or both can’t go, or if they’re at less than full strength, Washington will have to ride Scherzer that much harder. Then there are the injury whispers surrounding underachieving NL MVP Bryce Harper.

Tanner Roark makes for a capable No. 2 with his 2.86 ERA in 204.1 innings. Speedy rookie Trea Turner—who is hitting .340 with a .923 OPS and 27 stolen bases in 67 games—is an offensive catalyst. Catcher Wilson Ramos has 22 homers and a .307 average. The bullpen boasts the third-best ERA in baseball at 3.40.

It keeps rotating back to Scherzer, though. As soon as the ink dried on his seven-year, $210 million deal with Washington in January 2015, he became the Guy, capital “G.”

How has Scherzer fared against other possible NL postseason contenders? Let’s take a gander:

The Los Angeles Dodgers, who wrapped up the NL West on Sunday, are locked in as the Nats’ division series foe.

L.A. hitters have made some hay against Scherzer in their careers, as you can see. He hasn’t faced the Dodgers this season, but Los Angeles is 5-1 against the Nationals in 2016 and has Clayton Kershaw back atop its rotation.

Remember, though, Kershaw has wobbled in the playoffs, where he’s 2-6 with a 4.59 ERA. If Scherzer can outduel him in Game 1 of the NLDS (assuming that’s the matchup), it could go a long way toward derailing the resilient Dodgers’ momentum.

If the Nationals survive and advance, their likeliest NLCS opponent is the Chicago Cubs. Scherzer has good lifetime numbers against the potent Cubs lineup, but he’s had split results this year.

On May 6, Chicago tagged him for seven runs in five innings in a 6-8 defeat at Wrigley Field. On June 13, Scherzer got revenge, fanning 11 in seven frames at Nationals Park as the Nats prevailed, 4-1.

We won’t speculate on potential World Series opponents, because that would be getting way far ahead of ourselves, and because the AL postseason picture remains in flux. But Scherzer has familiarity with all the Junior Circuit contenders from his days in Detroit.

In the postseason, anything can happen. It’s a small-sample cauldron where stars sometimes fade and obscure players rise. That’s the beauty of October.

If you’re a Nats fan hoping to see Scherzer do a 2014 Madison Bumgarner impression, your hopes are legitimate.

FanGraphs puts the odds that the Nats will reach the Fall Classic at 11.6 percent, compared to 16.6 percent for the Dodgers and 18.2 percent for the Cubs. Those odds rise considerably if Mad Max goes beyond Thunderdome.

The stage is set. Now, all Scherzer has to do is step on it and throw like an ace.

All statistics courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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For the first time since 2007, the Cleveland Indians are the champions of the American League Central thanks to their 7-4 win over the Detroit Tigers on Monday.

The victory immediately led to plenty of celebration in the locker room, as Matt Loede of NEO Sports Insiders and Dave Chudowsky of WKYC shared:

First baseman Mike Napoli provided his thoughts while celebrating, per Dennis Manoloff of Cleveland.com:

As the team’s Twitter account noted, the magic number was officially zero:

Following the Cleveland Cavaliers’ triumph in the NBA Finals, the city has apparently turned around its sports fortunes in the past year, as Rep. Marcia L. Fudge noted:

Tom Withers of the Associated Press broke down the season as a whole:

The Indians have been on the cusp of a breakout since 2013, when they made the playoffs but were shut out by Alex Cobb and the Tampa Bay Rays in a 4-0 Wild Card Game defeat.

Horrible starts out of the gate in each of the following two years left Cleveland with huge holes to dig out of, though the Indians finished over .500 in both 2014 and 2015.

The Indians appeared to be facing an uphill climb in 2016 after learning All-Star outfielder Michael Brantley would miss the beginning of the season after undergoing surgery to repair his ailing right shoulder in November.

The front office made some moves during the offseason—signing Napoli and Rajai Davis, most notably—hoping to bolster the lineup until Brantley’s return.

Brantley briefly returned for 11 games before his shoulder flared up again in May, eventually requiring season-ending surgery, but the Indians were in a better place offensively with an All-Star performance from shortstop Francisco Lindor, a breakout season from Jose Ramirez, a return to form for Napoli, continued excellence from second baseman Jason Kipnis and a career year from Carlos Santana.

Ramirez, in particular, drew praise for filling the void Branley’s injury left in the lineup, per T.J. Zuppe of 92.3 The Fan:

One of the season’s best stories took place from June 17 through July 1, when the Indians reeled off a franchise-best 14-game winning streak that they capped off with a 19-inning marathon win against the Toronto Blue Jays:

Seeing the year was going in its favor, Cleveland’s front office became major players at the trade deadline by acquiring Andrew Miller from the New York Yankees to bolster its relief corps.

Adversity hit the Indians starting rotation down the stretch, when Danny Salazar, who earned a spot in the All-Star Game after posting a 2.75 ERA in the first half of the season, battled injuries in August and September that limited him to just eight starts.

Carlos Carrasco’s season ended prematurely when a line drive off Ian Kinsler’s bat hit his pitching hand on the second pitch of a Sept. 17 game against the Detroit Tigers.

After that game, which the Indians won 1-0 on the strength of nine relief pitchers, manager Terry Francona told reporters what he said after Carrasco exited the contest.

“I called [bullpen coach Jason Bere] down there and said, ‘Tell them to put their seat belts on, because they’re all going to pitch, and we’re going to win,'” Francona said, per MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian and Jason Beck.

That’s a fitting quote for this year’s Cleveland team, which has been forced to use a next-man-up mentality since spring training—and has used it to great success.

One reason the Indians have continued to play at a high level is the bullpen, which has become one of baseball’s best since Miller’s arrival, as MLB showed:

Given the increased importance of relievers in October, as the Kansas City Royals‘ run to the World Series last year demonstrated, the Indians have the right formula to continue the AL Central’s postseason dominance.

It also helps to have a Cy Young candidate such as Corey Kluber leading the rotation and a lineup that has exceeded expectations all year.

The city’s 52-year championship drought ended in June, when the Cavaliers captured their first NBA title.

The Indians will enter MLB’s postseason with a chance to end their 68-year World Series drought and solidify Cleveland’s place as the city of champions in 2016.

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Baseball, perhaps more than any other sport, is a game of moments. On Monday night in Miami, Dee Gordon and the Marlins gave us all an incredible one.

Playing for the first time since the death of franchise pitcher Jose Fernandez, every member of the Marlins wore Fernandez’s name and No. 16 on the back of his jersey. Before the game, the team paid touching tribute to its ace, who died Sunday in a boating accident:

Then, in the bottom of the first inning, Gordon did something that would have seemed too cliche for a melodramatic movie but was throat-clenchingly authentic in real life: He homered on the third pitch he saw from New York Mets right-hander Bartolo Colon.

It was Gordon’s first home run of the season. Tears welled in his eyes and spilled down his cheeks as he reached home plate and pointed to the sky.

Cynicism is easy. We media types fall into it all the time; it’s a crutch, a safety net, a convenient way to keep emotions at arm’s length.

Sometimes, though, the cynicism melts away. Sometimes, a thing moves you, and you let it move you, because we’re all human.

Forget the controversy and dysfunction that sometimes hovers around this Miami franchise. Not only did none of it matter on Monday—it didn’t even register.

The bittersweet memories of a rising star gone far too soon were the only thing in the air as Gordon rounded the bases.

Perhaps as Gordon touched first base, you were thinking about Fernandez’s incredible backstory—how he was locked in a Cuban prison after an unsuccessful defection attempt at age 14, and later saved his mother from drowning when she fell off a boat en route from Cuba to Miami.

Maybe as Gordon rounded second, you were remembering Fernandez’s meteoric rise to MLB stardom, the devastating stuff that earned him a National League Rookie of the Year Award in 2013 and made him an All-Star again this year after Tommy John surgery.

By the time Gordon got to third, you might have been recalling the energy and joy Fernandez exuded on the mound, which MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince aptly termed “an unbridled earnestness impossible to replicate but easy to appreciate.”

As Gordon crossed home plate, you were possibly thinking about all these things and, quite likely, there was a stinging sensation at the back of your eyes too.

The Marlins won, by the way, 7-3, to get back to .500 at 78-78 and keep their flickering wild-card hopes alive.

However, to trot out the bromide, this was bigger than the game. 

Gordon, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro noted, was “visibly shaken” by the death of his friend Fernandez. Before hitting his home run, the slender second baseman took a pitch from the right side, Fernandez’s side, imitating the pitcher’s stance.

The home run came with long odds, as ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell noted:

Again, if it hadn’t happened, you wouldn’t believe it.

Gordon’s homer won’t erase the pain in the Marlins’ clubhouse and across baseball. Only time can do that, and not even time can do it completely.

But Fernandez, a fiery competitor, would surely have appreciated the effort his teammates put forth. Gordon finished with four hits and two RBI, and first baseman Justin Bour fell a home run shy of the cycle. 

“That guy would have been on the mound,” Gordon said in somber on-field postgame remarks to Fox Sports’ Craig Minervini immediately after the Marlins reverentially circled the hill and piled their hats next to the stenciled-on No. 16. “And if he wasn’t on the mound, he would have been on the top step screaming for us.”

The tragedy of Jose Fernandez is that he didn’t get enough moments to do all the things he was going to do. But on a night when his spirit was everywhere, a grieving Marlins team gave us plenty.

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The Miami Marlins paid tribute to deceased pitcher Jose Fernandez on Monday before their game against the New York Mets, all donning Fernandez’s No. 16.

Eight Marlins opened the game by surrounding the mound, with no pitcher on the field. The team shared the tribute to Fernandez on Twitter:

Fernandez died in a boating accident Sunday morning. He was 24.

Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton was in tears as he spoke to his teammates before the game, as baseball writer Molly Knight showed:

MLB Gifs also showed Dee Gordon and Christian Yelich embracing:

When the game started, Gordon provided a moment that won’t soon be forgotten.

He opened his at-bat by stepping into the right-handed batter’s box and imitating Fernandez’s stance for the first pitch, per James Wagner of the New York Times. The second baseman then switched to his normal left side of the plate—and promptly hit his first home run of the season.

Wagner and Anthony DiComo of MLB.com described the turn of events:

After Miami defeated the Mets 7-3, the Marlins left the game ball on the mound and the entire team circled around it with their arms around each other, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal shared a photo of the moment:

Fernandez, one of baseball’s brightest young stars and most charismatic characters, could become the first posthumous Cy Young Award winner.

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Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez, who died Sunday in a boating accident, will be forever remembered as part of the franchise. 

According to Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post, the organization announced Monday it will retire his No. 16.

Fernandez will become the first Marlin to have his jersey retired, per Kenny Ducey of Sports Illustrated. The only number Miami has ever retired was Jackie Robinson’s No. 42.  

The 24-year-old Fernandez was one of the brightest stars in the game. Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald noted every player on the Marlins will wear the No. 16 that is set to be retired during Monday’s game against the New York Mets.

Miami canceled its game Sunday against the Atlanta Braves after the news of Fernandez’s death emerged, and Habib said the team will not make it up unless it is necessary in the playoff race.

According to Habib, the Marlins will hold tributes to Fernandez between innings Monday, and they revamped the music as a way of honoring him. Habib shared an image of fans lining up to remember the pitcher:

The Marlins were not the only team to honor Fernandez. As Michael Edison Hayden of ABC News noted, Major League Baseball held a moment of silence before every game Sunday. The NFL’s Miami Dolphins did the same before their matchup with the Cleveland Browns.

Numbers are typically retired in baseball and many sports as a way of remembering some of the all-time greats on the field. While Fernandez was in just his fourth season at the MLB level, he was well on his way to becoming just that for the Marlins.

The two-time All-Star won the 2013 National League Rookie of the Year and never posted an ERA above 2.92 or a WHIP above 1.16. He also had 589 strikeouts in 471.1 career innings, emerging as one of the league’s most electrifying pitchers.

Fernandez was known for more than just his on-field prowess. The Cuban-born pitcher was a fan favorite in Miami, and Tyler Kepner of the New York Times described him as someone who “brought ebullience” to the game.

He was once jailed for attempting to defect from Cuba and even saved his mother from drowning during a defection attempt, per Kepner.

Though Fernandez was young, there was already so much to remember about him. The Marlins made sure their fans will do so for years to come by retiring his number.

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Every Miami Marlins player will wear No. 16 in Monday night’s game against the New York Mets to honor Jose Fernandez, according to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. 

It will also be the last time the number is worn by a member of the Marlins organization, with owner Jeffrey Loria telling reporters the team will retire the number.

Fernandez died Sunday morning in a boating accident. He was 24. 

The Marlins also painted Fernandez’s No. 16 on the pitcher’s mound. 

Sunday’s game against the Atlanta Braves was cancelled in the wake of the news.

“As you see around you, there are no words to describe how this organization feels,” team president David Samson said in a press conference Sunday, per Tim Healey and Mike Clary of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “There’s no playbook. There’s no words of consolation. There’s prayer and there’s thought toward his family, toward his soon-to-be-born daughter. You realize how precious life is, how taking things for granted is a foolish man’s game.”

The baseball community came together Sunday to honor Fernandez and pay tribute to the starting pitcher who had already established himself as a superstar and one of the game’s most charismatic players. There was a league-wide moment of silence for Fernandez and tributes like the one from Yoenis Cespedes of the New York Mets:

“As mad as he would make you with some of the stuff he would do, you just see that little kid you see when you watch kids play Little League,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said, per Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. “That’s the joy that Jose played with, and the passion he felt about playing. That’s what I think about.”

Indeed, it was Fernandez’s love of the game that stuck with those who played with or against him.

“You could see the passion and joy of playing, and you realize it’s not showing up the other team,” Philadelphia Phillies catcher A.J. Ellis said of Fernandez, per Kepner. “It’s the joy of competing, the joy of him and his teammates being successful. You can’t fault anybody for that. You actually admire people for that.”

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