MLB
How many MLB Opening Day 2023 players were born outside the United States
Professional baseball is a sport that is expanding to more and more corners of the world, but Latin America still plays a major role.
It lasted a little more than two weeks but the World Baseball Classic clearly demonstrated that it is a sport that continues to expand to almost all corners of the planet. Throughout the world’s biggest tournament, you could see the passion that exists for a game that until not long ago was thought to be exclusively America’s national pastime.
With Japan lifting their third World Classic title, elite baseball moved back to the summer leagues of multiple countries, but none with the quality and talent that Major League Baseball brings together.
The Opening Day of the 2023 season brought a marathon day of almost 12 hours of play and 30 teams lining up. In addition to a fantastic performances by Shohei Ohtani, Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge, Julio Urías, Marx Scherzer, and others, the first day of the season yielded a list of 269 players who were born outside the borders of the United States and who represented 19 different countries. Some quick sums show that this means that 28.5 percent of the players are foreigners.
Within this foreign legion, the vast majority hit, pitch and field the game in the Spanish tongue. The Opening Day rosters featured 235 players born in Latin American nations.
As has been a tradition for several campaigns, the Dominican Republic is the territory outside the United States with the most men under one flag within the MLB. The Caribbean nation is confirmed as the hotbed of baseball major league (104), followed by Venezuela (62), Cuba (21) and Puerto Rico (19).
According to the report issued by Major League Baseball, Mexico was represented by 15 players, the most since 2005.
Which MLB team has most foreigners?
It’s no coincidence that the Houston Astros have become an American League powerhouse of late. The Texan organization has bet on talent from the south and its roster includes 16 foreigners, the most for any team. The current champions have Cubans Yordan Álvarez and José Abreú, Venezuelan José Altuve and a large number of Latino pitchers in their ranks.
The Twins continue on the list with 15 foreigners along with the Padres also with 15, curiously none of them are Mexican despite the proximity of the Southern California ninth. The team with the most countries and territories outside the US represented on its Opening Day roster this year was the Padres, with seven.
MLB players list by country (non-US)
1. Dominican Republic: 104
2. Venezuela: 62
3. Cuba: 21
4. Puerto Rico: 19
5. Mexico: 15
6. Canada: 10
7. Japan: 8
8. Colombia: 7
9-T. Curacao: 4
9-T. Panama: 4
9-T. South Korea: 4
12-T. Bahamas: 2
12-T. Nicaragua: 2
14-T. Aruba: 1
14-T. Australia: 1
14-T. Brazil: 1
14-T. Germany: 1
14-T. Honduras: 1