MLB deaths: The 2018 All-Eternal Team

Remembering the best among MLB deaths in 2018

The baseball world celebrated numerous highlights during 2018, Boston’s World Series victory, and the induction of several Hall of Famers being only the most obvious.

At various moments, however, it also took time out to mourn MLB deaths.

Dozens of former players, several of them prominent, died during the year. Most had been active during the 1960s or 1970s, some for only a few games.

Others, however, had more lengthy careers. Two were Hall of Famers, several played key roles on pennant winners.

Two of the MLB deaths were tragically premature. Venezuelan winter league teammates Luis Valbuena and Jose Castillo, one of whom had played in the majors during the 2018 season, died when the automobile in which they were traveling was accosted by robbers on a country road. The players’ car crashed while they attempted to avoid the bandits; a third teammate, Carlos Rivero, survived.

The following is a review of the careers of the best of those recently departed players, a 2018 version of an “All-Eternal” team.

The “team” consists of eight position players plus a designated hitter, a left-handed starter, a right-handed starter, and a closer, all of whom had careers encompassing at least five seasons.

Only two of the positions — shortstop and catcher — are occupied by players who were not full-timers for several seasons at those positions. Since no player whose primary position was shortstop died during 2018, that position alone is taken by a player who played most of his career at a different position.

Here’ a position-by-position look at the “team.”