Opening Day rosters feature 269 players born internationally
On the heels of essentially the most thrilling World Baseball Classic we’ve skilled, it’s becoming that when the Major League gamers who represented their respective nations within the match rejoined their large league groups, Opening Day rosters featured some of the internationally numerous collections of gamers in MLB historical past.
A complete of 269 internationally born gamers representing 19 nations or territories exterior the 50 United States have been on 2023 Opening Day rosters Thursday, together with gamers on the injured checklist and gamers on the inactive checklist. That is 28.5 p.c of the full variety of gamers on Opening Day rosters.
It additionally marks the third-most internationally born gamers on Opening Day rosters since MLB started releasing such annual knowledge in 1995. The solely years through which there have been extra have been 2020 (291, with expanded 30-man rosters as a result of pandemic-shortened marketing campaign) and ’22 (275, with 28-man rosters).
Among nations and territories exterior the U.S., the Dominican Republic had the most important variety of gamers on Opening Day rosters, with 104. That continues a streak of main on this class in every year knowledge has been out there. The solely yr through which the D.R. had extra gamers on Major League rosters on Opening Day was 2020 (110).
Here is a breakdown of nations/territories and the variety of gamers represented:
1. Dominican Republic: 104
2. Venezuela: 62
3. Cuba: 21
4. Puerto Rico: 19
5. Mexico: 15 (most since 2005)
6. Canada: 10
7. Japan: 8
8. Colombia: 7
9-T. Curaçao: 4
9-T. Panama: 4
9-T. South Korea: 4
12-T. The 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
14-T. Taiwan: 1
For the third straight yr, the membership with essentially the most internationally born gamers on its Opening Day roster is the defending World Series champion Astros, with 16. Here is a breakdown of the highest groups on this class:
1. Astros: 16
2-T. Twins: 15
2-T. Padres: 15
4-T. Marlins: 13
4-T. Yankees: 13
6-T. White Sox: 11
6-T. Mets: 11
6-T. Athletics: 11
The workforce with essentially the most nations and territories exterior the U.S. represented on its Opening Day roster this yr is the Padres, with seven. San Diego additionally led on this class final season, with eight. The Red Sox, Astros, Twins and Blue Jays every had six nations and territories represented.
