ST. LOUIS – Friday marks one decade since the late Oscar Taveras, once touted among baseball’s best prospects, treated Busch Stadium to a memorable MLB debut.
On May 31, 2014, Taveras made his mark with a home run in his second big-league at-bat, a unique moment in St. Louis Cardinals history celebrated with a curtain call in the rain.
The big blast helped the Cardinals to a 2-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants. For many who remember it, however, the home run also represents unfulfilled promise in a career cut short, as Taveras tragically died five months later.
On Oct. 26, 2014, Taveras and his girlfriend died in a car crash in his native Dominican Republic. The crash happened just 10 days after the Cardinals season came to an end in the National League Championship Series with Taveras on their postseason roster.
Taveras joined the Cardinals organization in 2008 at 16 years old as an international amateur free agent. He spent parts of six seasons in the minor leagues, climbing the ranks with a .300 batting average in five of those years. His 2012 campaign with Double-A Springfield (.321 AVG, 23 HR, 94 RBI) helped him surge to the top of baseball’s prospect rankings, beginning the 2014 campaign as MLB.com’s third-highest ranked prospect.
After his memorable big-league debut, Taveras couldn’t find much momentum during the 2014 campaign. He closed the regular season with .239 batting average, three home runs, and 22 RBI over 80 games.
Taveras did enjoy somewhat of a full-circle moment in the postseason with a pinch-hit home run in Game 2 of the NLCS against the Giants, a game the Cardinals later won a walk-off home run from Kolten Wong. After that, the Giants rallied for three home wins to eliminate the Cardinals, one round short of a World Series berth.
Despite a tough start to his big-league career, the Cardinals held high hopes that Taveras would become an everyday outfielder the next season and perhaps a future face of the franchise. After his tragic death, however, franchise plans changed course.
As the Cardinals scrambled to fill an outfield void, both for the short-term and long-term, these were among the key roster developments for the outfield that followed:
- The Cardinals acquired Jason Heyward from the Atlanta Braves, who enjoyed one solid 2015 season before joining the rival Chicago Cubs on a long-term deal.
- The Cardinals promoted prospects Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty to full-time outfielders by the end of the 2015 season. Both departed in trades after the 2017 season with more left to be desired.
- The Cardinals signed veteran Dexter Fowler to a five-year contract after the 2016 season. Injuries limited him in three seasons, and his returns were a bit sporadic. The Cardinals traded Fowler after the 2020 season.
- The Cardinals found a full-time role for prospect Tommy Pham midway through the 2017 season, though his momentum in St. Louis was short-lived, and he departed in a 2018 trade deadline deal.
- The Cardinals acquired Marcell Ozuna from the Miami Marlins for a haul of prospects ahead of the 2018 season. His power gave the Cardinals lineup a boost near the end of the decade, though he lasted just two seasons.
- The Cardinals have since developed several outfield prospects, including Tyler O’Neill, Harrison Bader, Dylan Carlson and Lars Nootbaar, to bridge the short-term and long-term roster decisions around Taveras’ death.
How many of these roster developments would have become a reality if Taveras were still alive? It’s hard to say definitively. At least for a few years after his death, the Cardinals focused on outside help with the additions of Heyward, Fowler, Ozuna, and other outfield bench bats.
If alive, Taveras would have reached six years of big league service by the end of the 2019 season. Had he stuck around in St. Louis that whole time, the Cardinals would have faced a decision on whether to extend or move on from him just ahead of the 2020s.
The Cardinals have made the postseason five times since the death of Taveras, though they have only advanced past their first series once. While his big-league debut is fondly remembered, the loss of a one-time promising star in Oscar Taveras remains one of the biggest “What Ifs” in recent Cardinals history.
NOTE: Video attached above is from FOX 2’s 2014 coverage of Oscar Taveras’ death.
