Despite the controversy surrounding the death of Oscar Taveras, the Cardinals sewed the outfielder's initials on their regular-season uniforms Wednesday.
The memorial patches feature Taveras' initials instead of his jersey number, 18. Taveras’ teammate, right-hander Carlos Martinez, will wear the number in his honor, ESPN.com reports.
"OT" memorial patches have been affixed to #stlcards regular season jerseys. pic.twitter.com/m3wK505oTN
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) March 25, 2015MORE: Notable sports deaths of 2015 | Five bold predictions for Cardinals
Taveras was a top prospect in the Cardinals organization as soon as he signed with the club as an amateur free agent in 2008. As a 22-year-old he hit a home run in his first major league at-bat last May and finished the regular season with three homers while batting .239 with 22 RBIs.
Taveras died last October when he crashed his sports car into a tree while driving drunk in the Dominican Republic. Taveras had a blood-alcohol content five times the legal limit at the time of the accident, which also killed his 18-year-old girlfriend, Edilia Arvelo.