'Playbol': Nearly a Dozen Latino Pitchers Prepare for Opening Day as 2024 MLB Season Approaches

SEATTLE - March symbolizes that time of the year where everything comes back to life in the Northern Hemisphere. As the Winter ends and Spring arrives, the weather gets warmer, fields start to bloom and, most importantly, Major League Baseball makes its return.

This year, the 2024 season will kick off on March 28, and even though we are still about a week away from the first game, some players have already made history ahead of their season debut.

This is because a total of 11 pitchers of Latin American descent are set to start for their teams on Opening Day, a number that surpasses the previous record set in 2017, when nine pitchers took on the mount that day.

The pack will be led by five Dominicans who will throw the first pitch for their respective teams this season. Venezuela is the country with the second-most representatives (two) while Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico complete the set with one each. Luis Castillo (Mariners) and José Berríos ( Blue Jays) are the most experienced pitchers among the 11.

This is a feat that dates back more than 100 years, when Cuban Adolfo Luque became the first Latin American pitcher to start the season when he threw for the Cincinnati Reds in 1921.

Fast forward more than a century, and Dennis Martínez and Félix Hernández hold the record for the most starts on Opening Day among Latino pitchers, with 11 starts each.

On top of the record starters, Latino pitchers will also set a new record for head-to-head clashes on Opening Day. This will be the first time that three games will all have pitchers of Latin American descent facing each other on this momentous. Since 1906, only 11 such games have occurred in the history of the Majors.

Opening Day - Latino pitchers head to head

• Freddy Peralta (Brewers) vs José Quintana (Mets), 1:10 PM ET
• Néstor Cortés (Yankees) vs Framber Valdéz (Astros), 4:10 PM ET
• Brayan Bello (Red Sox) vs Luis Castillo (Mariners), 10:10 PM ET

An example of MLB's diversity, it's the turn for Latino pitchers to show how important diversity in professional sports is. Last year, 40.3% of all players included in the Opening Day rosters (injury list, suspension and restricted lists) came from diverse backgrounds, a 2.3% increase compared to 2022.

Out of the 945 players in those rosters, Latinos/Hispanics represented the largest group of them all with 285 players (30.2%).