KELVIN COLÓN WAS bouncing between ballparks in Puerto Rico last Tuesday, scouting teams in the inaugural Buzzer Beater baseball tournament, an unprecedented event featuring 32 high schools from across the island. Never had the baseball-loving nation held a full-fledged tournament featuring public schools, private schools and baseball academies.
Some teams were overmatched. The great majority of the players won't have professional baseball careers. But Colón, a scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers, was encouraged.
"There's talent here, man," Colón said. "I just left the ballpark right now, saw two guys that I could easily say are seventh-to-10th-round follows. They might end up in the 12th, 13th round, but that doesn't mean that they're not big leaguers."
Insiders from across Puerto Rico's baseball spectrum -- current and former major leaguers, front office executives, agents and scouts -- agree with Colón. Real talent exists in Puerto Rico -- and Tuesday's Roberto Clemente Day is a reminder of that. Major League Baseball's annual remembrance of the Hall of Fame outfielder, who died in a plane crash in 1972 delivering supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua, is a celebration of Clemente's marvelous career and humanitarian efforts. He's a hero across baseball-playing nations in Latin America, and nowhere more so than in his native Puerto Rico.
Clemente was the island's first baseball superstar, and his tragic death only added to his lore. He inspired generations of Puerto Ricans to pick up the sport and follow his path to the major leagues. But more than a half century after his death, nearly two dozen people interviewed for this story said that in recent years the pipeline from Puerto Rico to the majors has disintegrated.
The reasons they gave are wide-ranging, but every source pointed to one genesis for the decline: MLB's decision to include Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, in the Rule 4 draft in 1989. The move took Puerto Ricans out of the international market, where they could sign as free agents at 16 years old, and into a player pool with high school seniors from the United States.
"We are neither one thing nor the other," an agent based in Puerto Rico said. "We're not a state, we're not independent. In the draft we're Americans, but in the Futures Game we're part of the world. They decide where to put us.
"Being part of the draft, I can tell you, is definitely what has hurt us the most."
THE DECLINE OF Puerto Rican-born major leaguers was evident this July in Philadelphia. For the first time since 1988, no Puerto Rican-born players were on either All-Star team. In the days leading up to the Midsummer Classic, just five players born in Puerto Rico were selected in the 2026 MLB draft, none of them before the 13th round. No Puerto Rican-born player has been taken in the first round since Heliot Ramos in 2017.
So far this season, 27 players born in Puerto Rico have appeared in games. In 2001, that number was 54 -- exactly twice as many. New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who missed more than two months with a left calf strain, leads Puerto Rican-born players with 1.9 bWAR this season. That would've ranked 13th among Puerto Rican-born players in 2001.
The lack of depth became apparent during the World Baseball Classic in March, when several of Puerto Rico's best active MLB players, including veterans Lindor, Carlos Correa, Jose Berrios and Javier Baez, were unable to participate, largely due to injuries. Puerto Rico's tournament ended with a quarterfinal loss to Italy.
"It's poor right now," a longtime MLB front office executive said. "You can see that from the beginning with the World Baseball Classic this year."
The issues transcend baseball. A poverty rate more than double that of Mississippi -- the poorest state in the U.S. -- leaves families unable to keep up with the showcase culture that has engulfed youth baseball in the United States. There is a lack of accessible facilities to properly train players. There are fewer competitive games for top-end talent. Other sports and entertainment options drain talent from the potential player pool.
"We are in a truly horrible place," the Puerto Rican agent said. "Like never before."
"It's f---ed," a current major leaguer said.
Carlos Delgado, who hit 473 home runs -- the most ever by a Puerto Rican -- across 17 MLB seasons, began his professional career after signing with the Toronto Blue Jays for $90,000 in October 1988. He was the penultimate Puerto Rican to sign as an international free agent before the draft was implemented on the island.
"We're victims of the draft," Delgado said in Spanish. "The draft has always hurt us."
Delgado was part of Puerto Rico's 1990s golden era, a storied group that included Hall of Famers Roberto Alomar, Edgar MartÃnez and Ivan RodrÃguez, plus a slew of All-Stars, including Sandy Alomar Jr., Juan González, Bernie Williams, Carlos Baerga, Benito Santiago and Ruben Sierra. All were signed as international free agents before Puerto Rico was included in the draft.
MLB's decision to incorporate Puerto Rico in the draft, according to multiple people interviewed, had unforeseen negative consequences on the flow of talent to the majors. Previously, most big league franchises employed full-time scouts on the island who would invest in the development of prospects, knowing that a strong relationship -- and the right amount of money -- could convince players to sign with their organizations. With the draft, however, teams lost that control; any one of the other 29 teams could simply pick a desired player in the draft before them.
"I think the draft had a deleterious effect on Puerto Rico in terms of the developmental players," said Lou Melendez, a former MLB executive for 33 years with extensive experience in Puerto Rico. "Because clubs, in my estimation, were disincentivized from investing the way they were many years ago."
While clubs have backed off investing in Puerto Rico over the past 37 years, MLB has tried to compensate with funding and programs.
The league helped establish the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and High School and has donated millions of dollars to it since its inception in 2001. In 2017, MLB donated $1 million to Puerto Rico for Hurricane Maria relief. In 2022, the league and the MLBPA donated $2 million for the building of a stadium for The Carlos Beltran Baseball Academy.
The league has also established Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI) programs on the island, currently runs a development program in four regions from September through May with more than 200 players, and holds a showcase every winter for the top 100 draft-eligible players, according to an MLB spokesperson.
"Puerto Rico has a long history of producing extraordinary Major League players who have made great contributions to the game both on and off the field," MLB wrote in a statement to ESPN. "We continue to invest in several programs aimed towards developing the next generation of Puerto Rican players in the big leagues."
MLB has played 49 regular-season games in Puerto Rico since 2001 and has had Puerto Rico host games in four of the six WBC tournaments, including this year's edition.
"The clubs don't invest, but the commissioner's office has," said Melendez, who served as Puerto Rico's general manager for the first three iterations of the WBC. "And it just hasn't been enough. It just hasn't been enough."
OVER THE YEARS, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela -- Latin American nations in the free agent market -- have seen major league clubs increase their investments, with more scouts and the creation of academies to help develop prospects. Theirs is far from a perfect situation; the system in the Dominican Republic is rife with corruption and exploitation. Still, 93 players from the Dominican Republic, including some of the sport's brightest stars, were on Opening Day rosters this season. Venezuela, whose pipeline has been damaged recently by political and economic instability, had 60 players on Opening Day rosters, second among countries and territories outside of the United States.
Puerto Rico, meanwhile, was left with a void in the developmental chain. Over the years, many teenage prospects have left Puerto Rico to attend high school in the U.S. That list includes Lindor, Báez and Edwin Arroyo, an infielder who was selected in the second round in 2021 and made his major league debut this season.
That's because unlike the U.S., Puerto Rico does not have an expansive high school baseball circuit. Baseball academies have been created over the past two decades in an attempt to fill the gap. The first one -- the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and High School -- has produced multiple major leaguers, including Correa, a three-time All-Star and the only Puerto Rican ever drafted No. 1 overall. Carlos Beltrán, who became the sixth Puerto Rican inducted into the Hall of Fame in July and the first one who was drafted, opened his academy in 2011.
But the developmental gap, according to multiple sources, remains an issue. For one, neither academy offers dorm rooms for students, making accessibility an issue for many prospects. Sources also pointed to the lack of infrastructure available for high schoolers to train as a huge impediment, leaving the typical Puerto Rican draft prospect physically underdeveloped compared with his American and Latin American counterparts.
"I've always been a huge proponent of high school baseball in Puerto Rico," said Houston Astros manager Joe Espada, the only Puerto Rican manager in the majors and a second-round pick in 1996. "There are enough ballparks. And it doesn't have to be a league with 30 games. You can start with 10, 15."
The developmental deficiency continues after the draft, according to sources, making Puerto Rican prospects' rise through the minor leagues more difficult.
"You have the 18-year-old kid that signs out of an academy in Puerto Rico," a former major leaguer from Puerto Rico said. "He goes and plays ball. Where does he train during the offseason the next year? Or the year after? Or the year after? That 18-year-old kid isn't going to play in winter ball. He's not developed yet enough to play in winter ball where you have to win.
"So, where does he go? It's not like the 18-year-old kid in the United States that goes back to his unbelievable high school facility. Or goes to one of those institutions and can pay for it because there's an infrastructure in the U.S. In Puerto Rico, where do you go? A lot of them get stuck."
The quandary also extends to the classroom, according to sources. Ramos was Puerto Rico's top 2017 draft prospect when he decided to transfer from a public high school to Leadership Christian Academy, a bilingual private high school, for his senior year. The change required him to leave his family and move in with his current agent.
The San Francisco Giants drafted him 19th, and they agreed on a $3.1 million signing bonus. Looking back, the outfielder saw the move as pivotal in his preparation for draft negotiations, as he also had a commitment to Florida International University in his back pocket. On an island where most public schools lack sufficient English education, many of his peers don't have that advantage.
"There's a lot of people who don't know English in Puerto Rico," said Ramos, who was acquired by the New York Yankees last month. "So to go to the United States for college in a language you don't understand, that is intimidating."
That often hurts players' leverage when negotiating with teams, sources said, to the point that clubs believe they can select Puerto Ricans later in the draft and offer them less money than Americans knowing that their backup plans aren't as appealing.
"I've heard the comment from people that this is the island of $100K," Colón said. "Like everyone will sign for $100K or less."
Since 2018, three players from Puerto Rico have been selected in the second round and two have been taken in the third round. This year, Juriel Collazo was the island's first draft pick. He was chosen in the 13th round with the 374th selection.
SEVERAL PEOPLE INTERVIEWED for this story emphasized their belief that Puerto Rico would suffer another significant setback if MLB's recent draft proposal to the Major League Baseball Players Association were to pass. The proposal, extended in June during the parties' ongoing CBA negotiations, calls for the domestic draft to shrink from 20 rounds to 12 rounds and for players to be at least two years removed from high school graduation, rendering high school seniors ineligible.
"We never made the adjustment fully to what the draft was and what it became," the former Puerto Rican big leaguer said. "And we're looking at like 30 years ago. Culturally, we were one way for a long time. And this is the outcome. Now we're at 20 rounds and it's even more difficult."
Sources said they believe Puerto Rico would be better off returning to the international free agent market or being included in an international draft if that is introduced as part of the next collective bargaining agreement. Melendez said he supports removing Puerto Rico from the draft for five to 10 years.
"Let's run an experiment," Melendez said. "You can count the draft picks on two hands every year, so why not take them out of the draft and let's see what happens. Let's try something because what we're doing now ain't working. It's not working."
But a few warned that the change wouldn't singlehandedly repair the pipeline, which would require time and significant investment.
"We'd be competing against a huge group of people that are more developed at ages 15, 16, 17," a longtime scout in Puerto Rico said. "It would take years to figure out."
Others worry about the potential damage a change could inflict beyond baseball.
"I don't want free agency for Puerto Rico, and that has nothing to do with the game. It has to do with the social aspect," a Puerto Rican former All-Star said. "In the Dominican Republic, they're signing kids at 16 years old, but a lot of those kids leave school at 12, 13 years old to go practice every day to see if they have a chance to sign professionally.
"And what happens? The majority of the players aren't going to play in the major leagues, so what you're doing is putting a bunch of 17-, 18-year-old kids in Dominican society without a high school degree. I think if free agency were to come to Puerto Rico, maybe it wouldn't happen at first, but I think in the long term what happens in the Dominican could happen here."
Colón is now one of a dying breed: a full-time scout for an MLB club who is based in Puerto Rico. He has been with the Dodgers since 2018 after stints with the Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles and now splits his time between the island and South Florida -- two areas he is responsible for covering for the two-time defending World Series champions. Colón, who is also the general manager of the Caguas Criollos in the Puerto Rican winter league, said he knows of just two other full-time MLB scouts who live in Puerto Rico.
"If you're living on the island, you're doing something else to solidify that full-time role," Colón said. "I just think what's hurt Puerto Rico, it goes all the way back to the draft."
But Colón is not as pessimistic as some of his peers. He pointed to the six players from Puerto Rico, an island with a population of 3.2 million people, who made their major league debuts this season as an encouraging sign. He argued that U.S. states with similar populations don't produce those numbers, and yet "people are banging on Puerto Rico."
Some data supports his sentiment. Puerto Rico produced 25 high school draft selections in the top 20 rounds from 2021 through 2025, ranking in the top 10 each year when compared with U.S. states. Per capita, Puerto Rico produced twice as many players on Opening Day rosters this season as Venezuela, which has a population of 28.6 million, though the country's recent turmoil has significantly impacted clubs' ability to invest in and unearth talent there.
Colón sees stronger future draft classes in his scouting trips around Puerto Rico. Maybe Puerto Rico will never relive its 1990s golden era or generate a wave of All-Star talent like the one headed by Lindor, Correa and Báez in the 2010s. But he's hopeful -- to an extent.
"The forecast of the future, yeah, it's cloudy," Colón said. "I admit that part -- it's cloudy."
