McCullers tears up talking about good friend Fernandez

Lance McCullers was a good friend of Jose Fernandez, and he spoke about it for less than two minutes before breaking down.

"I knew him pretty much right when he came over from Cuba in Tampa," the Houston Astros' right-hander told reporters. "We started training together in the summers and offseasons, and that kind of developed into a really good friendship that had been kept up with ever since."

The duo started training together when they were teenagers and were both high school standouts in Tampa, Fla., shortly after Fernandez defected from Cuba.

Fernandez, 24, was killed early Sunday in a boating accident in Miami Beach. When the morning news reached McCullers, he had trouble digesting it.

"I don't even know," he said. "I woke up from a bunch of texts and people calling me. My alarm didn't even wake me up. At first, I was kind of in shock and didn't know how to process it, but it kind of hit me a little later on in the morning."

McCullers has been on the disabled list since August, and only came to the park to get some work done. Still, he took time to speak to reporters before breaking away to shed some tears.

He said he spoke to Fernandez about two weeks ago and, "ironically," talked about going fishing in the offseason.

"I just don't really understand why, don't understand how something like that kind of happens," he said. "I don't know a whole lot at this point. I haven't really reached out to anyone.

"I've been coming to the field and letting it kind of process on my own," he added. "I just kind of want to understand why, understand more of what happened versus the reports and what the media says. I kind of want to talk to his family a little bit and see how something like this could happen."