Tomorrow at the Phillies Dominican Academy a ceremony will take place for the dedication and naming of three baseball fields. Akin to Carpenter Complex in Clearwater where each of the four practice fields are named after former Phillies (Robin Roberts, Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt & Richie Ashburn) the three full sized practice fields at the Dominican training academy in Boca Chica will be named after former Phillies Juan Samuel, Carlos Ruiz and Bobby Abreu. By doing so the club also acknowledges the diversity of the international baseball world as Samuel hails from the Dominican Republic, Ruiz from Panama and Abreu from Venezuela. Three great men and former Phillies who excelled in their big league careers!
The Phillies Academy opened in 2017 and graduated it’s first Dominican Summer League (DSL) player who was an original signee of the club after the Academy opened and also played in league games there to the major leagues last season when center fielder Johan Rojas made his debut. By my count there are 51 currently active players who began their careers playing in the DSL at the Phillies Boca Chica academy who are now stateside playing or recovering from injuries in affiliated minor league baseball either with the Phillies or another organization.
Since the Phillies Dominican Academy opened in 2017 the combined winning percentage of the two DSL clubs the Phillies field to date is 446-318 (.584) with Phillies White at 243-141 (.632) and Phillies Red at 203-177 (.534). The Phillies White club has never had a losing record in the six seasons since the Academy opened (2020 was cancelled) and over the past two seasons has tallied a 82-33 mark which is an outstanding winning percentage of .713.👀 The 2022 Phillies White team also won the DSL playoff championship.
In honor of the field dedication (my wacky way of doing so since I can’t be there to watch in person 🤓) I did a bit of research on the current impact of international signings in Major League Baseball. A perusal of the 30 major league active rosters (I reviewed each MLB roster over the past three days) reveals that 216 of the 780 (28 %) spots are currently occupied by international players (drafted and signed else signed as international free agents - for purposes of this exercise I included Puerto Rico ).
Players range in age from 20 (the Brewers Jackson Chourio) to 38 (Carlos Santana of the Twins). Seventy-one of the players are over 30 years of age with twenty-seven 33 years of age or older. Twenty-nine players are in the 20-24 age range with 116 players ages 25 to 29 (29 twenty-five yr olds, 20 twenty-six year olds, 23 twenty-seven year olds, 18 twenty-eight year olds and 26 twenty-nine year olds).
The Astros were the original signing organization for 16 of the 216 players followed by the Cubs & Yankees (13 each), Dodgers (12), Mariners & Guardians (11 each), Padres & Twins (10 each), Rays, Red Sox, Rangers & Reds (9 each), Blue Jays, Royals and Cardinals (8 each), Braves (7), Giants, Mets & Tigers (6 each), Phillies, Pirates, Diamondbacks and Nationals (5 each), Brewers (4), Marlins, Angels & Rockies (3 each), White Sox & A’s (1 each) and Orioles (0).
The Padres have the largest contingent of international players on their current active roster with 14 followed by the Astros, Guardians & Twins (11 each), the Dodgers (10), Phillies, Brewers & Marlins (9 each), Cubs, Rays, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Braves, Giants, Mets & Pirates (8 each), Rangers, Royals & Angels (7 each), Mariners & Orioles (6 each), Yankees, Reds, Diamondbacks, Nationals & Rockies (5 each), Tigers (4) and the Cardinals, A’s & White Sox (2 each).
In regards to retention only 66 of the 216 players are playing for the organization that originally signed them. The Cubs lead the way with 6 players on their active roster originally signed by them followed by the Astros, Giants and Royals (5 each), the Padres and Guardians (4 each), the Phillies, Twins, Dodgers, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Rangers (3 each), the Pirates, Angels, Mariners, Reds and Cardinals (2 each) and the Brewers, Braves, Rays, Mets, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Nationals, Rockies and Tigers with one each. The Marlins, Orioles, A’s and White Sox have none.
Lastly in the breakdown by country or territory the Dominican Republic leads the way with 80 players followed by Venezuela with 48, Puerto Rico (22), Cuba (17), Canada (12), Mexico (8), Japan (7), Panama (6), Curaçao (4), Colombia & South Korea (3 each) and Aruba, Bahamas, Brazil, Germany, Honduras and South Africa (1 apiece).
I also previously did some research on the Phillies historical international impact since 1997. I found that at least 57 players reached or are presently major leaguers who began their pro careers as Phillies international signees, the 57 are listed below, current major leaguers bolded :
Sergio Escolano, Yohan Flande, Cesar Hernandez, Lendy Castillo, Dario Alvarez, Jonathan Villar, Carlos Silva, Jorge Padilla, Franklin Nunez, Anderson Machado, Eude Brito, Yoel Hernandez, Robinson Tejada, Carlos Ruiz, Ezequiel Estacio, Alfredro Simon, Jose Flores, Miguel Ascenzio, Jean Machi, Curtis Mead, Franklin Nunez, Elizardo Ramirez, Zack Segovia, Amaury Telemaco, Carlos Carrasco, Adrian Cardenas, Antonio Bastardo, Carlos Monasterios, Lendy Castillo, Freddy Galvis, Domingo Santana, Maikel Franco, Yacksel Rios, Carlos Tocci, Jessen Therrien, Deivy Grullon, Franklyn Kilome, Jonathan Arauz, Willians Astudillo, Lisalverto Bonilla, Hector Neris, Severino Gonzalez, Seranthony Dominguez, Ricardo Pinto, Ranger Suarez, Edubray Ramos, Edgar Garcia, Adonis Medina, Mauricio Llovera, Sixto Sanchez, Rafael Marchan,Johan Rojas, Ramon Rosso, Luis Garcia, Brad Harman, Simon Muzziotti and Francisco Morales.
Congrats to Mr. Samuel, Mr. Abreu and Mr. Ruiz for the honor of fields being named for them - that’s good stuff!
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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