MLB Pitchers From The Dominican Republic Just Had Their Best Year Ever

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Rookie righthander Luis Gil helped keep the Yankees afloat in the first half when Gerrit Cole was injured.

The 26-year-old made 29 starts and went 15-7 with a 3.50 ERA. Gil then made two additional starts in the postseason, and while he didn’t pitch as effectively in October as he did during the regular season, he helped contribute to a bit of history.

When Gil took the hill versus the Guardians in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, he was the sixth different Dominican pitcher to start a postseason game in 2024.

That tied 2020* for the most different pitchers from the Dominican Republic to start a game in a single postseason. In addition to Gil, the other postseason starters this year were the Mets’ Luis Severino, the Phillies’ Cristopher Sanchez, the Astros’ Framber Valdez and the Brewers duo of Freddy Peralta and Frankie Montas.

While that may appear to be mere trivia on the surface, it points to larger trend in MLB this season: Dominican pitchers had their best year ever.

Pitchers born in the Dominican Republic produced 50.4 bWAR this season, according to Baseball Reference software engineer Dan Hirsch. That total climbs to 61.9 WAR if pitchers with negative values are excluded. 

Both totals are the highest ever for Dominican pitchers in a single season—and the 2022 and 2023 seasons rank second and third on that list.

This year, seven different Dominican pitchers accumulated 3 bWAR or more, which was another single-season record. Gil, Sanchez and Valdez are on the list. So, too, are Guardians closer Emmanuel Clase, the Astros’ Ronel Blanco, the Braves’ Reynaldo Lopez and the Pirates’ Luis Ortiz. 

There were a total of five 3 bWAR pitchers from the Dominican Republic in both 2022 and 2023, with the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara and the Mariners’ Luis Castillo appearing on both lists. Making single appearances were Felix Bautista of the Orioles, Brayan Bello of the Red Sox, Johnny Cueto of the White Sox and Cristian Javier of the Astros.  

In some ways, we saw this surge in value from Dominican pitchers coming.

When Baseball America previewed rosters for the 2023 World Baseball Classic, we took note of the Dominican Republic’s strongest ever pitching staff, led by Alcantara and Javier in the rotation and closers Camilo Doval and Carlos Estevez in the bullpen.

While things didn’t go as well as hoped from the Dominican Republic in the 2023 WBC, that roster helped set the stage for what has been a golden era for Dominican pitchers in the major leagues, especially starting pitchers.

* The 60-game Covid season of 2020 saw 16 teams qualify for the postseason. The six Dominican starters to make starts that October were Framber Valdez, Sandy Alcantara, Sixto Sanchez, Luis Castillo, Frankie Montas and Deivi Garcia. 

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Publish date : 2024-10-30 13:00:00

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