Twins Prospect Ryan Costello Found Dead in New Zealand

The 23-year-old third baseman died in his sleep, apparently of natural causes, on Monday morning, team officials said.

Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Minnesota Twins prospect Ryan Costello has been found dead in his Auckland hotel room days after joining the Auckland Tuatara in the Australian Baseball League.

The 23-year-old third baseman died in his sleep, apparently of natural causes, on Monday morning, team officials said.

“The Tuatara express their deepest condolences to Ryan’s family back home in the United States and to the whole Minnesota Twins organization,” the club said in the statement.

The statement said Costello’s teammates were “naturally devastated” by the news. Concerns were raised when Costello failed to report for training Monday morning, days ahead of the Tuatara’s opening game of the 2019-20 ABL season.

The Twins also said in a statement they are “deeply saddened” by Costello’s death.

Costello was traded to Minnesota last year as part of a deal that sent Zach Duke to the Seattle Mariners.

Born in Hartford, Conn., he played in the minor leagues for the Clinton Lumberjacks and later for the Fort Myers Miracle during their 2018 championship run.

In an interview with Twins Daily in October, 2018, Costello said his greatest strength is “my ability to stay positive through tough times and understand that it’s part of the game and ups and downs are going to come.”

He spoke of his desire to spend time with family after his first professional season in 2019.

“My dad has a bass boat and has had it since I was a kid,” he told Twins Daily. “The first thing we do when I go home is go fishing.

“I’ve been home for seven days, I’ve been out fishing about four of those days. I live about five minutes from a river, the Connecticut River, so we go fishing on the river a lot.”