The Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente, which you might know by its colloquial name of the Puerto Rican Winter League, has had a rough go of it over the past few years. The league suspended operations in 2007, as declining attendance put it in dire financial straits; the twin hurricanes of 2017 cut that winter’s season to just one month. The league is down to five teams, although it announced in September that Ponce will have a team again next winter, marking that city’s first entry since 2013-14.
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But these are just outward manifestations of the league’s main problem: The best Puerto Rican players do not play winter ball here anymore, and until that changes, the league will probably continue to struggle, despite the best efforts of many scouts, coaches, and executives who are trying to keep it alive.
In discussions with multiple scouts who cover the league now or have done so in the past, two common themes emerged to explain why teams don’t send their prospects to Puerto Rico. There’s a pervasive fear of players getting hurt, whether from overuse or just the possibility of fluke injuries. Teams also prefer the highly controlled environment of the Arizona Fall League to the actual competition of winter ball. The AFL is an exhibition league, where players play for a championship but do so playing for artificial teams assembled by the league, with at least one coach on their staff coming from their parent club. In Puerto Rico, the teams are playing to win and representing their local communities, so playing time isn’t guaranteed, and players wouldn’t be working with coaches from their regular organizations.
Thirty players born in Puerto Rico played in the majors in 2021, and as of this writing, exactly three of them have played in the LBRPC this winter — Vimael Machin, Michael Perez and Henry Ramos, none of whom was even above replacement level in the majors this year, with only Perez playing more than 40 games in the big leagues. (All data here are from Baseball-Reference.) There are a lot of homegrown Puerto Rican stars and others who were born on the island but moved to the continental U.S. before they were drafted, yet none of them are here. There was some chatter that Jose De Leon, Joe Jimenez and Christian Colón (who played in the majors in 2020) would join the league soon, which won’t hurt but doesn’t address the league’s lack of star power, either.
Major-league teams also aren’t using it for developmental purposes, which is even more harmful in a way, because it undercuts MLB’s stated support of the Liga. Last winter, the Red Sox sent Jarren Duran and the Yankees sent Luis Medina, but so far there hasn’t been even that caliber of prospect present. After the lost 2020 season, you would think teams would be eager to send players to winter ball to help them recover some of the repetitions they missed last year. Even something as simple as MLB urging teams to send better players could make a significant difference.
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Who’s missing? Giants outfielder Heliot Ramos, the best Puerto Rican prospect in the minors right now, would be an ideal candidate to play here, a rising star who’d likely benefit from the playing time but also be a potential draw for his team. The Twins’ José Miranda isn’t far behind him, but he is also absent. Nelson Velázquez won the Arizona Fall League MVP Award, which is certainly good news for the Cubs, but why wasn’t he playing in his native Puerto Rico? The same applies to Milwaukee’s Mario Feliciano, who was in the AFL, barely playing, when he could be playing much more regularly in the LBPRC and making up the reps he lost to injury in 2021. Delvin Perez was the last first-rounder drafted from Puerto Rico, and he could use the additional at-bats — he played just 98 games this year, and his production still is well below where it should be.
Boston’s second-round pick in 2019, Matthew Lugo, is the highest-drafted player from Puerto Rico since Perez, and though he’s listed on a roster, he’s not going to play in the league this winter — even though he could probably use the extra at-bats too. The Astros did send their 17th-round pick from 2021, Hector Nieves, and he’s gotten to play for Mayaguez as an 18-year-old due to injuries in their infield, already adding another 40 PA to the 93 he received over the summer. Even if he struggles, the extra repetitions can’t hurt him. The best Puerto Rican prospect I saw might have been Royals infielder Gabriel Cancel, their seventh-rounder in 2015; he’s a low-OBP power guy who can play second or third competently and should see some time in the majors in the next year for somebody, but he also shouldn’t be the best local player in this league.
As much as you hear that Puerto Rico’s inclusion in the MLB draft in 1990 is the cause of the decline of popularity of baseball on the island, that doesn’t entirely explain why this league continues to struggle. MLB needs to prioritize sending Puerto Rican players who want to play winter ball at home, for the good of the sport and to ensure baseball remains popular among young players in Puerto Rico in the long term.
Here’s who I did see of note:
• The most interesting player was actually a Bahamian-born prospect in the Blue Jays system, Chavez Young, whom they took in the 19th round out of a Georgia high school in 2019. Young played outstanding defense in center field and is at least a 70 runner, with some bat speed but no power. His 2021 campaign was his best to date, with a .260/.350/.409 line in Double A as a 23-year-old, and he’s continuing to show strong on-base skills for Mayaguez. He’s not on their 40-man roster, and I could see him sticking as someone’s fourth or fifth outfielder because of the value of his defense.
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• Alexis Torres was Baltimore’s fifth-round pick in 2016 out of a high school in Toa Alta, Puerto Rico, but he’s never filled out or showed any other ability to make hard contact, while his 2021 season was almost completely wiped out by injury. He’s a perfect example of a player who should be playing in the LBPRC, and he had a solid approach at the plate, with some extra-base power already in the nine games he’s played. But he doesn’t look any different and at 23 he’s really on the clock to improve his contact quality.
• Oakland right-hander Osvaldo Berrios was the A’s 20th-round pick in 2017 and works with above-average control of a bunch of 45s, topping out at 89. His arm works well, and he has a good frame to try to get stronger, which he has to do after getting hit very hard in low- and high-A this past year.
• There were a few blasts from drafts past there; Reymond Fuentes, Boston’s first-round pick in 2009, can still run but still can’t hit, while 2013 Phillies third-rounder Jan Hernandez is playing for Santurce for the fourth straight season. Oakland took Yordy Cabrera as an infielder in the second round in 2010, but he never hit, and after the A’s released him he moved to the mound and pitched for four organizations from 2015 to 2019. He was 91-93 with a soft changeup in the upper 70s, not as hard as he threw in high school, and without much command.
• I didn’t see Carolina play, but it has a reliever who’s caught scouts’ attention – Pirates right-hander Oliver Mateo, signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2018 when he was already 20 years old. His stat line in low-A this past year is comical: He threw 37 2/3 innings, walked 40 guys and punched out 82, so 70 percent of the batters he faced either walked or struck out. He’s been 97-100 with a slider up to 81 that scouts say is impossible to hit. It’s pretty easy to dismiss him given the walk rates, but he’s a name to tuck away in case he ever figures out the strike zone at all.
(Photo of Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico, during the Caribbean Series in 2020: Ricardo Arduengo / AFP via Getty Images)
