Braves, Rangers Produced Most Players On Opening Day Rosters
The most productive player development system in baseball might surprise you.
If you look at major league Opening Day big league rosters, Atlanta leads the way with 34 players who were originally signed by the Braves.
| Team | Draftees | Int’l | Other | Total |
| Braves | 26 | 8 | 34 | |
| Rangers | 25 | 8 | 33 | |
| Dodgers | 18 | 14 | 32 | |
| Mets | 22 | 10 | 32 | |
| Angels | 21 | 6 | 3 | 30 |
| Red Sox | 19 | 10 | 1 | 30 |
| Yankees | 16 | 13 | 1 | 30 |
| Diamondbacks | 21 | 8 | 29 | |
| Phillies | 19 | 10 | 29 | |
| Cardinals | 24 | 4 | 28 | |
| Mariners | 16 | 12 | 28 | |
| Cubs | 20 | 5 | 25 | |
| Twins | 17 | 7 | 1 | 25 |
| White Sox | 21 | 4 | 25 | |
| Brewers | 21 | 3 | 24 | |
| Padres | 22 | 2 | 24 | |
| Royals | 20 | 4 | 24 | |
| Giants | 19 | 4 | 23 | |
| Indians | 17 | 6 | 23 | |
| Rays | 19 | 3 | 1 | 23 |
| Astros | 20 | 2 | 22 | |
| Reds | 16 | 5 | 1 | 22 |
| Rockies | 16 | 6 | 22 | |
| Tigers | 17 | 4 | 21 | |
| Blue Jays | 16 | 4 | 20 | |
| Marlins | 17 | 3 | 20 | |
| Athletics | 13 | 5 | 1 | 19 |
| Nationals | 19 | 0 | 19 | |
| Orioles | 15 | 4 | 19 | |
| Pirates | 13 | 2 | 15 |
There are 26 players originally drafted and signed by the Braves on big league rosters on Opening Day. Another eight international players who first signed with the Braves made rosters as well. The Braves’ homegrown talent has spread wide around the league as only six of those 34 players were on the Braves’ Opening Day roster.
The Rangers (33), Dodgers (32) and Mets (32) are the other teams to produce more than 30 big leaguers. The Angels, Red Sox and Yankees all produced 30 players on active rosters.
At the other end of the spectrum, the team that has produced the least big leaguers is equally surprising. The Pirates, perennial playoff contenders in recent years, have only 15 players who they originally signed on big league rosters. Those 15 are an impressive group as they include Andrew McCutchen, Jose Bautista, Starling Marte, Gregory Polanco and Gerrit Cole, but there are just 13 draftees and two international signees (Polanco and Marte) that are original Pirates.
The Athletics matched the Pirates for fewest drafted players on Opening Day rosters (13).
The Nationals have no players they signed internationally who were on an Opening Day roster, making them the only team without an international signee in the big leagues.
That isn’t all that surprising considering the history of the Nationals’ international program. After being forced to spend sparingly as the Montreal Expos, Washington’s international scouting was then effectively gutted by an age scandal in 2009 after an age fraud case involving a $1.4 million bonus to Esmailyn Gonzalez. The Nationals fired special assistant to the general manager Jose Rijo and shut down their academy in the Dominican Republic. Eventually general manager Jim Bowden also resigned, citing the distractions caused by the FBI’s investigation into allegations of bonus skimming in the Dominican Republic.
Washington has rebuilt its international player development program and has several international players not far from the big leagues–Wilmer Difo and Reynaldo Lopez most notably–as well as intriguing prospect Victor Robles. But the damage done in the late 2000s is still having an impact years later.
This is only an accounting of the total numbers of players in the big leagues. For these purposes Silvino Bracho counts equally with Mike Trout. And teams get credit for players signed years ago–three Expos draftees count in the Nationals’ ledger. But it is a useful look at who has produced what over the years.
The Angels were the best at creative scouting. Three of the Angels’ 30 big leaguers were signed as nondrafted free agents (Matt Shoemaker, Steve Geltz and Darren O’Day). There were only four other nondrafted free agents on any big league roster. Two players who were broke into pro ball as independent leaguers are on Opening Day rosters–Daniel Nava and Chris Colabello.
Comments are closed.