Cuba Béisbol

Major League Baseball’s opening day rosters had 231 players born outside the 50 United States — 27.7 percent, shy of the all-time record set in 2005 (29.3 percent).

Of those foreign-born players, seven were born in Cuba: Danys Baez (Philadelphia Phillies), Yuniesky Betancourt (Kansas City Royals), Jose Contreras (Phillies), Yunel Escobar (Atlanta Braves), Kendry Morales (Los Angeles Angels), Brayan Peña (Royals) and Alexei Ramirez (Chicago White Sox).  

That number doesn’t include veteran pitcher Livan Hernandez, who will be added to the Washington Nationals’ roster as their No. 5 start, and 22-year-old lefty Aroldis Chapman, who began the season in the Cincinnati Reds’ farm system.

But that number is a far cry from the heydays of Cuba’s participation in the majors.

In the wake of Fidel Castro coming to power in 1959, many of Cuba’s best players, such as Tony Perez (right), went to play in the United States and were never able to return to their homeland.

In the first decade of the Castro regime, Cuba had between 20 and 30 representatives in the majors each season, with a high of 34 Cuban major leaguers in 1969, according to Baseball Almanac.

But as players who were unable to leave the island continued to be blocked from playing in the majors, the number of Cuban-born major leaguers continued to dwindle year by year with only three playing in each season from 1982-86.

As defections increased in the 1990s and 2000s, the number of Cuban major leaguers climbed into double figures.

But until Cuba allows its players to sign with major league teams, it will never catch the Dominican Republic (86 players on opening-day rosters) or Venezuela (58) as the top producers of foreign-born MLB players.