Watch: Eduardo Perez pays powerful tribute to Fernandez

Current ESPN analyst and former Miami Marlins hitting coach Eduardo Perez, gave an emotionally packed remembrance speech shortly after news broke that Jose Fernandez tragically lost his life in a boating accident.

"It's tough, I don't even know what to say." Perez told ESPN's Hannah Storm.

"What the team is going through, what the city is going through and his family, his mom? That's tough. Professional aside, this is the human part. He meant so much to the organization and the city, the Cuban community and to the kids... he's going to be greatly missed."

Perez, who coached Fernandez from 2011-2013, was born in the United States, but his father, Hall of Famer Tony Perez, hailed from Cuba, further connecting him to the 24-year-old Marlins starter.

Fernandez attempted to defect from Cuba to the United States several times, and in 2007, the year he managed to make it to the United States, he saved his mother from drowning after she fell overboard into the ocean.

"He risked his life, and he did it multiple times and would do it for anyone," Perez said. "That's the beauty of Jose, and that's how I will remember him."