List of Major League Baseball players from Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico currently has the fourth-most active players in Major League Baseball (MLB) among Latin American jurisdictions, behind the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba.

After the baseball color line was abandoned following Jackie Robinson's debut in the National League of MLB, more players from the island signed contracts.

During this time period, the Puerto Rico national teams experienced success on international competition and Afro-Puerto Rican players began to participate in the Negro leagues.

[5] In 1973, Roberto Clemente became the first player from Puerto Rico and first Latin American to be elected as a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

During this timeframe, several players have been selected to participate in the All-Star Game or won awards for their performance, while others imposed records within the league.

Originally, players who were either born or naturalized in Puerto Rico were able to sign with MLB teams as free agents, usually receiving minor-league contracts prior to their debut in the league.

The change reduced the number of players that were able to participate in the league, by limiting the number of them selected by the teams;[2] this led to the island's Secretary of Recreation and Sports, to formally ask to Major League's involvement in developing specialized schools to produce more players and other measures to reduce the impact of the draft's implementation.

[2] The original proposal included Puerto Rico's exclusion of the draft for a period of ten years, but this was not approved by the league.