According to a report by FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman, the Marlins are working on plans to construct a permanent memorial to the late José Fernández.
No details have been released yet, only that the memorial will be “something wonderful,” per team owner Jeffrey Loria’s comments. Heyman speculates that it could be centered around a statue or a pitcher’s mound to honor Fernández’s contributions to the sport. As it stands right now, the Marlins have a makeshift memorial set up outside the ballpark that has drawn thousands of mourners since Fernández died in a boating accident on September 25.
This will be the latest in a series of posthumous honors for the pitching phenom, who was named the NL Comeback Player of the Year in 2016 and whose jersey number has been permanently retired by the club. While the coroner’s report found alcohol and cocaine in Fernández’s system following the fatal crash, it doesn’t appear that the findings will have any bearing on the team’s decision to press forward with the memorial.
