Spring Training

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JUPITER — Miguel Rojas’s opinion of Jose Fernandez didn’t change with the release Thursday of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report. Rojas won’t think any less of his late friend and teammate now that investigators concluded Fernandez was responsible for the September boat crash that killed him and two friends.

For Rojas, though, Fernandez’s story is one that he and others can learn from. In short, Rojas said, be careful. Make good decisions.

“You have to be careful with the things you do,” the Marlins’ utility infielder said Friday. “Sometimes you’re going to be in the right moment in the right spot. You don’t want to be hanging out too late or whatever. That stuff happens, but you do have to take care of yourself.”

Marlins president David Samson expressed a similar sentiment on the first day of spring training and said it would be something the team talks about together.

In addition to Fernandez — who was drunk and had cocaine in his system and was speeding in the middle of the night with no visibility — Rojas pointed to a series of other deaths in recent years.

One night this offseason, Kansas City Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura and former major leaguer Andy Marte died in separate Dominican Republic car wrecks in which drunk driving was suspected to be an influence. In October 2014, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveres died in the Dominican under similar circumstances.

In December, Twins minor leaguer Yorman Landa died in Venezuela when he was a passenger in a car that hit a fallen tree.

Everyone needs to play it safe, Rojas said, even more so in certain conditions.

“I feel like for us Latin guys, we have to be especially careful, especially when we go back to our countries,” said Rojas, who is Venezuelan. “Not just us [major leaguers], because we have experience. We have a couple years in the States. The important guys are the guys next, the guys in the minor leagues. They need to be taught, they need to learn really early — we have to be careful when we go back to our countries.

“I feel like the better way to honor Jose is to live the way he lived life, with that kind of joy. But I do have to make better decisions, especially when you have a family behind you. You have your mom trying to watch you. I have a baby, I have my wife. So I know about myself in this country. I need to look out for a lot of people. That makes me make better decisions.”

The FWC report was not a significant topic of conversation Friday morning for the Marlins, who had Thursday off. A few players declined to talk about its findings. Others said they hadn’t even heard the news.

Mattingly agreed with Rojas that it didn’t change anything as far as remembering Fernandez the person goes.

“At the end of the day there are three families that are really sad,” Mattingly said. “From my standpoint, and I’m not sure everybody is the same, but I think still you have three families that have huge losses. Nothing that’s going to come out makes any of that better.”

Everyone else, however, can learn from it.

“The better decision you can make,” Rojas said, “the better for your whole family.”

Rojas