Infielder Ryan Costello, a prospect for the Minnesota Twins, was found dead last Sunday in his hotel room in New Zealand.
The 23-year-old baseball player Ryan Costello, who was found dead in his hotel room, was in New Zealand to play for the Auckland Tuatara of the Australian Baseball League. According to Tuatara, "preliminary indications suggest he died of natural causes."
Tuatara stated in the news release: "The Tuatara would like to express their deepest condolences to Ryan's family back home in the United States and to the whole Minnesota Twins organisation. Support is being offered to the Tuatara players, who are naturally devastated at the moment."
The Wethersfield, Connecticut native played at Central Connecticut State University and was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 31st round of the 2017 Major League Baseball (MLB) draft but was traded to the Twins in July 2018.
The Minnesota twins released a statement regarding Costello's death, saying: "The Minnesota Twins are deeply saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Ryan Costello yesterday in New Zealand. On behalf of the entire organization, the Twins send their most sincere condolences to Ryan's family, friends, coaches and teammates."
This year, Costello split his season playing between the Single-A Fort Myers Miracle and Double-A Pensacola Blue Wahoos in Florida, appearing in 108 games. The Fort Myers organization tweeted: "We were very sad to learn the news about the passing of former Miracle infielder Ryan Costello this morning. His home run helped lift the Miracle to the FSL Championship in 2018. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and the entire Twins organization."
Meanwhile, the Blue Wahoos also expressed their condolences via Twitter post saying: "With great sadness, we remember a ballplayer whose talent on the field was only exceeded by his kindness off of it."
Twins minor league outfielder Mark Contreras created a GoFundMe site to help Costello's family with funeral expenses. On the GoFundMe page, Contreras wrote: "With the donations we hope to help the family of Ryan through this hard time and hope it helps in anyway shape or form."
