Image credit:
Jose Altuve (Photo by Daniel Shirey/WBCI/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
You may be wondering: Which countries produced the most MLB players this season?
The answer, it turns out, is just about what you would expect.
The vast majority of MLB players are born in the U.S. While the overall percentage of foreign-born players playing in the majors has increased, it remains true that almost three out of every four players in the majors this year were born in the U.S. No other country tops 10%.
We are using birth country because it’s the most consistent data point available. That’s so even if there are fringe cases in which a player’s birth country may not be the best representation of where his baseball career developed.
To further dig into the data, we’ll be taking a closer look at the most prominent birth countries on the list and breaking the numbers down by innings pitched and plate appearances. Let’s take a look.
Drilling down a little further into the data, we see that there are more foreign-born hitters than pitchers. If you look at the percentage of plate appearances by birth country for 2025, you find that the Dominican Republic edges above 10%, while the number of U.S. plate appearances drops to a little more than two-thirds of all MLB PAs.
The pitching numbers are much more U.S. dominated, with only 12% of MLB innings pitched in 2025 coming from players born anywhere other than the U.S. or the Dominican Republic. Japan does stand out here, as it has 2.4% of innings pitched compared to just 1.2% of plate appearances. Venezuela is also notable for producing considerably more hitters than pitchers.
Next, we’ll examine nationality trends over the past 15 seasons for every country with a player in the majors in 2025.
United States
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 1,052
- Share of MLB PAs: 67.4%
- Share of MLB IP: 78.2%
- Notable MLB Players: The list is too large to even try to list, but OF Aaron Judge, RHP Paul Skenes, SS Bobby Witt Jr. and C Cal Raleigh serve as a useful starting point
Dominican Republic
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 141
- Share of MLB PAs: 10.5%
- Share of MLB IP: 10.1%
- Notable MLB Players: OF Juan Soto, DH Rafael Devers, 3B Junior Caminero, RHP Luis Castillo, LHP Framber Valdez
Venezuela
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 91
- Share of MLB PAs: 8.6%
- Share of MLB IP: 3.7%
- Notable MLB Players: OF Ronald Acuña, 2B Jose Altuve, C William Contreras, OF Jackson Chourio, RHP Luis Garcia
Cuba
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 34
- Share of MLB PAs: 3.4%
- Share of MLB IP: 1.3%
- Notable MLB Players: DH Yordan Alvarez, OF Randy Arozarena, LHP Aroldis Chapman, RHP Raisel Iglesias
Puerto Rico
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 24
- Share of MLB PAs: 2.5%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.8%
- Notable MLB Players: SS Carlos Correa, RHP Edwin DÃaz, SS Francisco Lindor, SS/OF Javier Báez
Canada
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 22
- Share of MLB PAs: 1.7%
- Share of MLB IP: 1.5%
- Notable MLB Players: 1B Vladimir Guerrero Jr., 1B Josh Naylor, OF Tyler O’Neill, RHP Nick Pivetta
Japan
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 14
- Share of MLB PAs: 1.2%
- Share of MLB IP: 2.4%
- Notable MLB Players: DH/RHP Shohei Ohtani, RHP Kodai Senga, RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, OF Seiya Suzuki
Mexico
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 13
- Share of MLB PAs: 1.1%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.5%
- Notable MLB Players: 1B Jonathan Aranda, C Alejandro Kirk, 3B Isaac Paredes, RHP Andrés Muñoz
Colombia
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 6
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.3%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.4%
- Notable MLB Players: 3B Gio Urshela, 1B/2B Donovan Solano, LHP Jose Quintana
Panama
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 5
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.66%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.01%
- Notable MLB Players: C Miguel Amaya, C Ivan Herrera, SS José Caballero, RHP Justin Lawrence
Curaçao
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 4
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.87%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.14%
- Notable MLB Players: 2B Ozzie Albies, CF Ceddanne Rafaela, OF Jurickson Profar, RHP Kenley Jansen
South Korea
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 4
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.27%
- Share of MLB IP: 0%
- Notable MLB Players: SS Ha-Seong Kim, 2B Hyesong Kim, INF Ji Hwan Bae, OF Rob Refsnyder
Nicaragua
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 3
- Share of MLB PAs: 0%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.13%
- Notable MLB Players: RHP Carlos RodrÃguez, RHP Erasmo RamÃrez, RHP Jonathan Loáisiga
Aruba
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 2
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.36%
- Share of MLB IP: 0%
- Notable MLB Players: SS Xander Bogaerts, C Chadwick Tromp
Australia
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 2
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.13%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.04%
- Notable MLB Players: 1B Curtis Mead, RHP Liam Hendriks
Germany
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 2
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.57%
- Share of MLB IP: 0%
- Notable MLB Players: INF Brendan Donovan, OF Max Kepler
Italy
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 2
- Share of MLB PAs: 0%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.11%
- Notable MLB Players: RHP Chase Burns, LHP Sam Aldegheri
Taiwan
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 2
- Share of MLB PAs: 0%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.05%
- Notable MLB Players: INF Tsung-Che Cheng, RHP Kai-Wei Teng
Bahamas
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 1
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.28%
- Share of MLB IP: 0%
- Notable MLB Players: 2B Jazz Chisholm
Honduras
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 1
- Share of MLB PAs: 0.23%
- Share of MLB IP: 0%
- Notable MLB Players: INF Mauricio Dubón
Peru
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 1
- Share of MLB PAs: 0%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.43%
- Notable MLB Players: LHP Jesús Luzardo
Portugal
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 1
- Share of MLB PAs: 0%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.02%
- Notable MLB Players: RHP Isaiah Campbell
South Africa
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 1
- Share of MLB PAs: 0%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.07%
- Notable MLB Players: RHP Tayler Scott
United Kingdom
- 2025 MLB Players (as of Sept. 1): 1
- Share of MLB PAs: 0%
- Share of MLB IP: 0.02%
- Notable MLB Players: RHP Michael Petersen
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