Former major leaguer Marcos Carvajal is another victim in Venezuela’s crisis

By César Augusto Márquez

Marcos Carvajal died on the afternoon of Jan. 24 in his hometown of Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, knowing that he fulfilled his dream of pitching in the major leagues.

He probably never imagined that he would pass away suddenly and much too young at age 33.

Carvajal, a gangling, hard-throwing reliever who played for the Colorado Rockies in 2005 and in three games for the Florida Marlins in 2007, died due to complications stemming from pneumonia.

Carvajal, a part-time youth baseball instructor, died at the Hospital Ruiz y Páez in part because he and his family couldn’t purchase the medicine that could have saved his life.

“Marcos didn’t make enough money in baseball to live off the game,” Nelson Castro, a close friend of Carvajal, said in Spanish in an interview with La Vida Baseball.

He lived in a country bitterly divided by politics and wracked by hyperinflation and chronic shortages of many basic necessities.

“He had difficulties breathing the last few months of his life,” Castro said. “He checked himself into a hospital in December, but we couldn’t obtain all the medicine that he needed because you can’t find them in the country.”

Despite lacking proper medicine, Carvajal improved and was released over the holidays. He returned to his home in La Sabanita.

A relapse prompted him to rush to the emergency room at Hospital Ruiz y Páez in January. Carvajal drove to the hospital, according to Castro. He died soon after he was admitted, according to the Diario El Progreso.

Carvajal signed as a 16-year-old free agent with the Los Angeles Dodgers in September 2000. He never found a stable home, going through eight different major league organizations. He was traded twice — once for Venezuelan catcher Yorvit Torrealba and once for Dominican minor-league pitcher José de la Cruz.

Carvajal became the youngest Colorado Rockies player to debut when he broke into the majors April 6, 2005, at age 20 and 230 days. He pitched 53 innings in 39 games that season, going 0-2 while striking out 47 and giving up 21 walks.

His stint with the Marlins two years later was inconsequential. Carvajal made his last appearance in the majors on Sept. 29, 2007, against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. He gave up four hits and two runs while striking out one and walking one in two innings.

Carvajal, who posted an 0-2 record with a 5.21 ERA in 42 games over his big league career, played in the minors, Mexico, Italy and the Venezuelan winter league until 2011-12.

Like many in Venezuela, Carvajal was raised in a baseball family. He started playing at age 5. His father, Marcos Carvajal Sr., was a winter-league pitcher nicknamed El Jalao, or “The Skinny One.” Carvajal, who barely packed 175 pounds on a 6-foot-4 frame, earned the diminutive version of his father’s sobriquet — El Jalaíto.

Despite his slight build, Carvajal threw a heavy fastball. In Venezuela they call it “tirar piedras,” which translates to “hurling rocks.” He also threw a changeup and a slider. He played on regional all-star teams and represented his country in the Central American and Caribbean Games.

He was quiet and reserved until something set him off. A volatile temper may have contributed to Carvajal’s short stay in the major leagues. He also played for four different Venezuelan teams — half the winter league — Leones de Caracas, Cardenales de Lara, Caribes de Oriente and Águilas de Zulia.

Added to the roster of the Tigres de Aragua for the 2009 Caribbean Series, Carvajal enjoyed one more shining moment in his career. He won Game 2 in extra-inning relief after striking out the side.

“He had a good but wild fastball,” Richard Gómez, a front office executive for the Cardenales de Lara, told the Venezuelan daily El Nacional. “He never caused the team problems. They said that he was a challenging ballplayer, but we never saw it. It’s too bad he couldn’t persevere once he got to the major leagues.

“The news of his death shook me up,” Gómez added. “It’s unbelievable that in this country a Venezuelan has to die because he can’t get medicine. It’s very sad to see things like this happen. You feel both indignation and impotency.”

The headline in El Nacional website blared, “Another victim of the crisis.” According to the Convite Asociación Civil, a Venezuelan NGO that distributes donated medicine directly to patients and sick people, there is enough medicine in the country to treat only about 6 percent of the persons with respiratory illnesses.

“We face a situation in which unfortunately there are very little stopgap measures that will help stem the severe shortages of medicine in the country,” Luis Francisco Cabezas, Convite Asociación Civil president, said in Spanish in an interview with La Vida Baseball.

According to the Diario El Progreso, back in 2005 Carvajal was the 172nd Venezuelan to debut in the major leagues. It’s no consolation to his family and friends that he is the first major leaguer whose death was was linked to the lack of medicine during the country’s current political and economic crisis.

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