Major League Baseball announced that 28.1% of the players on Opening Day rosters were born in 20 different countries or territories outside of the 50 United States.
The record total is 288 and eclipses the all-time high of 259 reached in 2017. It comes from a pool of 1,026 players: 896 on active 30-man rosters and 130 on injured, restricted of beravement lists. This also marks an all-time record.
Dovydas Neverauskas was the story of 2017 when he became the first player from Lithuania to compete at the MLB level.
The international players include Mauricio Dubón, a middle infielder for the San Francisco Giants, who became the first player from Honduras to make it on an MLB roster.
Dubón was born in San Pedro Sula and as a 15-year old impressed a Christian Baseball Mission Group visiting Honduras. He went to the USA as a foreign exchange student and was drafted by the Boston Red Sox out of high school in 2013.
The Dominican Republic accounts for the most international players in MLB, as it has always happened since MLB started releasing the data in 1995, with a total of 109 Dominicans on Opening Day.
Venezuela ranks second with 75, followed by Cuba with 22. Puerto Rico has 20 players, its highest total since 2011.
Canada registered its highest total since 2015, matching Japan and Mexico with nine players in the league. Colombia also set a new record with seven, eclipsing the previous high of five in 2018.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands accounts for six players (four are from Curaçao, one from Aruba and one from The Netherlands).
The other countries are Panama (5 players), Korea (4), Australia (3), Nicaragua, Taiwan (2), Brazil, Germany, Honduras and Lithuania have 1 each.
The Houston Astros and the Minnesota Twins are the most global clubs, with 15 international players on each of their rosters. They are followed by the Chicago White Sox, Miami Marlins, New York Yankees (13), Cleveland Indians (12).
Cover picture: Didi Gregorius, a former Yankee now with the Philadelphia Phillies, represented The Netherlands internationally
