MIAMI — Jose Fernandez was “stressed” in the final hours leading into his fatal boating accident, according to reports on Tuesday, and tried to recruit Marlins players to accompany him on the trip.
The Marlins pitcher was among three men killed Sunday morning when his boat slammed into a rocky jetty off Miami Beach.
“That night I told him, ‘Don’t go out,’ ” Marlins outfielder Marcell Ozuna told the Miami Herald. “Everybody knew he was crazy about that boat and loved being out on the water. I told him I couldn’t go out that night because I had the kids and my wife waiting for me.”
Investigators have not determined who was driving the boat, but Fernandez’s teammates are skeptical Fernandez was at the controls.
“He didn’t know how to start the boat,” a Marlins player told The Post. “Whenever he went out he just sat in the back. He would fish and all that, but he didn’t know how to drive the boat.”
According to a Yahoo Sports report, Eddy Rivero, who accompanied Fernandez on the boat ride, texted another friend, Will Bernal, to express concerns about the trip. Bernal remembered telling Rivero it was a “horrible idea” to let Fernandez out on the water.
The 24-year-old Fernandez and his girlfriend were expecting their first child, making the tragedy all the more heartbreaking to the Marlins.
“We were in Philly the other night, Friday night at the hotel, his girlfriend was there and we talked about him having a girl and stuff,” Marlins outfielder Jeff Francoeur said. “He wanted a boy and I said, ‘Dude, your little girl, she will love you more than any other person you could ever imagine.’ He was getting all excited.”
The Marlins honored Fernandez on Monday, with a pregame ceremony that included a playing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on a trumpet as a video montage was shown on the outfield screen. The Mets and Marlins also embraced on the field before the game.
The Marlins beat the Mets 7-3, highlighted by Dee Gordon’s homer leading off the game – his first blast of the season – after he had first stepped into the right-handed batter’s box for a pitch to honor Fernandez.
The Mets were clearly caught up in the emotion of the night – Travis d’Arnaud admitted he was in tears as Gordon rounded the bases. The Marlins were clearly appreciative of the Mets’ outpouring of support.
“That was unbelievable what they did, too,” Giancarlo Stanton said. “How they went about the whole game, playing at the highest level of competition in such bad circumstances is so hard to do, and they understood.
“When you have that understanding it was actually good that it was a team in our division rather than somebody we play that comes to us once a year.”
After the game, the Marlins surrounded the pitcher’s mound and left their game caps as a true to Fernandez. Much of the team then went to Stanton’s house to smoke cigars as players reminisced about Fernandez.
“It was all genuine to both sides,” Stanton said, referring to the emotion of the night. “All of it, man. Every bit of it was amazing.”
