Showcase offers glimpse into Puerto Rico’s MLB future.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
By JOHN STOFFEL
Special to The STAR
It’s a pleasant, sun-washed Wednesday in January and Ponce feels like the center of the baseball world. Inside Francisco Montaner Stadium, 95 of the island’s top high school baseball players gather for the MLB Puerto Rico Showcase. The crack of the bats and the pop of mitts echo through the stadium as scouts representing teams across Major League Baseball lean forward in their seats, notes in hand.
Puerto Rico baseball royalty, including the first Puerto Rican- born MLB manager, Edwin Rodríguez, is at today’s Showcase. His presence underscores the importance of the event: it is a statement about the island’s enduring baseball tradition and its next generation.
The players for the Showcase largely come from baseball academies including the Puerto Rico Baseball Academy, the Leadership Christian Baseball Academy, and the Carlos Beltrán Baseball Academy. The Puerto Rico Baseball Academy and High School (PRBAHS) in Gurabo, founded in 2001, was envisioned by former Texas Rangers pitcher Edwin Correa after he saw a decline in Puerto Rican players in the major leagues compared to the Dominican Republic. The PRBAHS has 205 baseball players from grade 7 to 12. Baseball is played three days a week with the day split between hitting, conditioning, defense and a throwing program.
Student-players travel from throughout the island to attend PRBAHS, catching early buses provided by the academies. For many, the ride to school takes over an hour.
Last year, PRBAHS opened a new baseball location separate from the school with a pristine playing field, batting cages, and Trackman and Edgertronic baseball camera equipment. Edgardo Lebrón, the sports coordinator at PRBAHS who also works as a fundamentals and programming coach for the Tampa Bay Rays, comments that 10 years ago there were only one or two baseball academies but now there are many, with more emphasis on health and conditioning and improved equipment allowing for more data on metrics.
Last year, 48 seniors from PRBAHS went on to play junior college or Division I baseball in the mainland United States. No graduating seniors from PRBAHS were drafted, but several went to D-1 colleges in the U.S. Roughly half of the seniors went to the University of Puerto Rico and other colleges in Puerto Rico. Many went to small private Christian colleges and historically black colleges in the mainland United States, while almost one quarter went to community colleges there. Junior colleges have become an increasingly popular path with the number of rounds in the MLB draft decreasing. A junior college allows the ballplayer more immediate playing time than a D-1 school typically does.
A shifting pathway
Hiram Bithorn is widely regarded as the first Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues, signing with the Chicago Cubs in September 1941 as a pitcher, debuting in 1942 and leading the league in shutouts in 1943. He was followed by Orlando Cepeda, Víctor Pellot Power, and the most famous Puerto Rican MLB player, Roberto Clemente.
Clemente’s career followed the process of being signed by a major league club, the Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1954 as an international free agent out of high school. He was soon acquired, for $4,000, by the Pirates before the end of the year under the so-called “Baby Bonus” rule, by which he was eligible to be drafted because the Dodgers left him unprotected.
Clemente was not drafted initially by the Dodgers since, before 1990, players from Puerto Rico were treated as international free agents. Players signed with an MLB team at a young age (usually 16 or 17) once they were discovered by scouts. This system was similar to how teams sign players from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela today. U.S. standards require players to complete a high school diploma or to be at least 18 years of age, while Dominican or Venezuelan players are able to sign with major league organizations as early as age 16.
However, starting in June 1990, Puerto Rican players became eligible for the regular U.S. MLB draft (Rule 4 Draft) instead of being considered an international free agent. The change was driven by a desire to both decrease exploitation of young players and increase the competitive balance between teams, and the fact that Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. However, an unintentional impact of this change was that the number of Puerto Rican MLB players dropped after 1990 as teams stopped investing as heavily in youth development and scouting since they no longer could attain an advantage with this investment.
The baseball academies look to increase the number of MLB players from Puerto Rico, but they face more competition for players from youth soccer, basketball and volleyball.
“Many parents appreciated the one hour set time for soccer that also would not be subject to further delays from rain,” Lebrón pointed out.
As today’s showcase proceeds, players perform sprints, throws from right field, throws from the catchers to second, and a nine-pitch batting session. Scouts and parents watch closely from the stands. Parents pay close attention as their son comes to bat and let out a sign of relief when their son’s session is complete.
At lunch, Johnny Ramos from the Kansas City Royals displays his World Series ring. He is known as the scout who signed Carlos Beltrán. It was a great week, as Beltrán had just been elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
Reflecting on the future of Puerto Rico baseball, Ramos notes that “Puerto Rico has a challenge matching the number of players from the Dominican Republic as our population is much smaller.”
A scrimmage between the Red and Navy teams starts up with pitchers pitching just one inning for each team. There are no fewer than 10 radar guns held up by scouts behind home plate. As a tall, lanky pitcher takes the mound, Aníbal Zayas, a scout for the Baltimore Orioles, remarks: “This one is young. He will be here next year, too. He looks like a pitcher. I think he is taller than six feet. He needs to extend more.”
On this bright afternoon in the south of the island, the future of Puerto Rican baseball is on display. Last year, four players from high schools in Puerto Rico attended the 2025 MLB showcase and were drafted by MLB teams. Gustavo Meléndez of Cayey (Colegio La Merced), Diego Rosa of Caguas (International Baseball Academy High School), Fabian Bonilla of Vega Baja (Christian Military High School), and Leamsi Montañez of Arroyo (Leadership Christian Academy) were drafted by the Pirates, Athletics, Red Sox and Reds, respectively.
This year, 95 young athletes chase a dream, watched closely by those who may help make it real.
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