Remembering Jose Fernandez, the would-be hometown All-Star

It was the day before last year’s All-Star game. Jose Fernandez pulled his agent aside.

“I need to let you know something,” Fernandez told Scott Boras. “Next year, I’m going to start that All-Star game in Miami.”

This All-Star game, to be played Tuesday at Marlins Park, is for the 71 players selected and for the one who lost his life in a boating accident in September, only five days after he had announced his girlfriend was pregnant with the couple’s first child.

Fernandez moved to Florida after escaping Cuba, later becoming an American citizen and embracing the Miami community. The Marlins have two All-Stars in Tuesday’s game, but Giancarlo Stanton grew up in the San Fernando Valley and Marcell Ozuna is from the Dominican Republic.

Boras had to stop to collect his thoughts as he spoke about Fernandez on Monday. On the lapel of his jacket, he wore a pin with Fernandez’s name and uniform number.

“He wanted to represent the city, this team, and the Cuban community,” Boras said. “He worked, and he worked hard. There was nobody that was more gifted, nobody that performed at a higher level at the age he entered the league.”

Fernandez had a record of 16-8 with a 2.96 earned-run average last season, and he led the National League in strikeouts per nine innings. The Marlins have retired his number (16) and maintained his locker in their clubhouse.

He was 24 when he died. A Florida state commission has reported he was at the helm of the boat, legally drunk, with cocaine in his system.

“You have to focus on the blessing and the time you had with him,” Boras said, “but it’s very hard not to think about what he could have meant to the community here, and to the franchise, and to the game, and really accomplishing things that I think few pitchers could have accomplished.”

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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