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Former major league pitcher Yoervis Medina has died. Reports out of his native Venezuela indicate that authorities believe Medina suffered a heart attack while he was driving, leading to a fatal car crash (via KIRO 7 News). He was 37 years old.
Medina pitched for the Mariners and Cubs from 2013-15, working 146 innings across an identical number of games. He posted a 3.08 career ERA with a 23.1% strikeout rate along with a 12.4% walk rate. Most of his success came in his first two seasons, as Medina pitched to a 2.81 ERA with a 24.3% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate in 125 innings for the Mariners from 2013-14. In that span, he ranked 34th out of 109 qualified relievers in ERA and ranked 21st with a 53.5% ground-ball rate.
He was traded to the Cubs in May 2015 for Welington Castillo and pitched in five games for them with a 7.00 ERA, but he wound up spending most of the season in the minors. That was followed by brief stints in the Pirates and Phillies organizations in 2016, neither of which resulted in a big league call. Medina then pitched in the Venezuelan winter league from 2016-20 before moving to the Italian Baseball League in 2023 and the Czech Baseball Extraliga in 2024.
Medina was teammates in Seattle with Jesús Montero, who was tragically killed in a motorcycle crash earlier this month. We send our condolences to Medina’s family, friends, loved ones and former teammates.
