Latin American baseball players are flourishing in MLB. From 8.9% in 1960 to 26.9% in 2012, almost 3 out of every 10 major leaguer comes from south of the border. Of MLB's top 100 prospects 29% are latinos. With this bonanza of foreign talent there is a major supply of big league SS's. Entering the 2014 season 20 of 30 (67%) MLB SS positions are filled by latin players. There are 7 Dominicans (Hanley Ramirez, Jose Reyes, Jean Segura, Jhonny Peralta, Erick Aybar, Starlin Castro and Pedro Florimon), four Venezuelans (Alcides Escobar, Elvis Andrus, Marwin Gonzalez and Asdrubal Cabrera), four Cubans ( Yunel Escobar, Alexei Ramirez, Jose Iglesias and Adeiny Hechavarria), three Netherland Antilles (Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorius and Andrelton Simmons), one Nicaraguan (Everth Cabrera) and one Panamanian (Ruben Tejada). Every MLB division has at least 3 latino SS and the AL Central is 5 for 5.
The top 5 latino SS's according to fWAR for 2013 were: 1. Hanley
Ramirez (5.1 WAR) 2. Andrelton Simmons (4.7 WAR) 3. Yunel Escobar (3.9 WAR) 4. Jhonny Peralta (3.6 WAR) 5. Jean Segura (3.4 WAR). According to the same metric the worst MLB SS was Adeiny Hechavarria of the Florida Marlins with a -1.9 WAR, showing negative offensive and defensive numbers.
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| Hanley Ramirez LA Dodgers (highheatstats.com) |
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| Andrelton Simmons Atlanta Braves ( gammonsdaily.com) |
This predominance is in line with names from the past like Leonardo Cardenas, Zoilo Versalles, Dagoberto Campaneris, Alfonso Carrasquel, Luis Aparicio, David Concepcion, Omar Vizquel, Tony Fernandez, Alfredo Griffin, Rafael Ramirez, among the most recognizable. Now more than ever there seems to be a direct pipeline from Latinoamerica to the Major Leagues.
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| Bert Campaneris Oakland A's (spokeo.com) |
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| Tony Fernandez Toronto Blue Jays (mlbreports.com) |
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