What percent of Major League Baseball's (MLB) players are foreign born as of 2018?

Baseball may be America’s pastime but it is also a global enterprise. Americans benefit from the opportunity to see the best players from all over the world. A good way to see immigration in America is to take a look at its baseball players.

Twenty-seven percent of Major League Baseball players are foreign-born, according to a National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) analysis of data released by Major League Baseball (MLB). “The 254 players born outside the U.S. . . . come from a record-high pool of 877 players (750 active 25-man roster players and 127 disabled, suspended, restricted or paternity leave Major League players) on March 29th rosters,” reported MLB.

The NFAP analysis found Major League Baseball included 20 players – 19 from Puerto Rico and one from the U.S. Virgin Islands – in their list of “players born outside the U.S.” However, under U.S. law, individuals born in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are U.S. citizens. After eliminating those 20 players from the count, there are 234 foreign-born players, which means 27% of the 877 individuals listed as players by Major League Baseball are foreign-born.

The Dominican Republic has 84, followed by Venezuela with 74 players, Cuba with 17, Mexico with 11, Japan with 8, Canada and South Korea with 6 each, Colombia and Curacao with 5 each, and Australia, Brazil, Nicaragua and Panama have 3 players each. Aruba, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, South Africa and Taiwan had 1 player each.