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Over a quarter of the players rostered across Major League Baseball to begin the 2022 season were born outside the United States with the Nationals among the most internationally heavy teams, MLB announced in a press release Thursday.
Washington enters the year with 15 international players from six different countries between their Opening Day roster and injured lists.聽Only the Houston Astros (16) have more.
President of Baseball Operations and GM Mike Rizzo has led the overhaul of the Nationals鈥� international pipeline throughout his tenure, working with assistant GM Johnny DiPuglia to revive a side of their organization once . Their biggest success stories include Dominican outfielders Juan Soto and Victor Robles with Joan Adon (also from the DR) cracking the starting rotation out of camp this spring.
鈥淢ike and Johnny DiPuglia, they do a great job on scouting and scouting internationally,鈥� manager Davey Martinez said Friday. 鈥淲e try to get the best players. That鈥檚 what it comes down to and to me, it doesn鈥檛 matter where they come from. It really doesn鈥檛, but it鈥檚 nice. I鈥檒l tell you one thing is that I really am brushing up on my Spanish.鈥�
The countries represented on the Nationals鈥� roster include Venezuela (six players), the Dominican Republic (five), Cuba (one), Panama (one), Mexico (one) and the Bahamas (one). Nine signed with the club in free agency, two arrived in trades, three joined as amateur free agents and infielder Lucius Fox was claimed off waivers this offseason.
Their various backgrounds have made for a unique clubhouse, one that Martinez said has shown strong chemistry early on.
鈥淪ome of these older Latin guys have taken on some of these younger Latin kids and really helping them really getting them to understand because it is difficult,鈥� Martinez said. 鈥淭he culture is different here [in the U.S.] and some of these guys [are] first time in the majors leagues full time. First Opening Day, I heard Nelly tell Adon and those guys, 鈥楬ey, take a look around. Enjoy it. This doesn鈥檛 happen every day and let鈥檚 have fun.鈥� It was good to see that.鈥�
Latin American veterans such as Nelson Cruz and An铆bal S谩nchez have taken on leadership roles on a Nationals team that鈥檚 shifted its priorities toward prioritizing youth development. S谩nchez has seen division in some clubhouses where a majority of players were from similar backgrounds, so he鈥檚 tried to help bridge the bond between teammates that speak different languages.
鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 try to help everybody because not many teams have so many Latin players but at the end I think we need to understand that we have to play for a team,鈥� S谩nchez said. 鈥淲hen we have a lot of people from the same place or something like that, it鈥檚 sometimes really hard to focus. But at the end, if you share that bond it鈥檚 really awesome playing together. So, for me, I would like that everybody understand if we stay together we can have so much fun outside.鈥�
