MLB Playoffs: Which remaining AL team has the most home grown players?
The final four teams remaining in the MLB Playoffs from the American League have all taken unique routes to construct their current rosters. We have ranked each team from least to most in terms of which team has the most home-grown talent.
Although key free agents signings and trades are necessary for teams to advance to the MLB playoffs, the remainder of the rosters need to be filled out with home-grown players. For this list, players originally acquired through the MLB draft or through international signings will be considered home-grown players.
International signings can consist of high dollar bonuses, but so can high round picks in the MLB draft. Even though some international signings may have the opportunity to play in professional leagues before signing a major or minor league contract, it is still unknown how they will perform at the MLB level. Due to this, players selected in the MLB draft and players signed internationally both require a very talented scouting department to find future impact players for their respective organization.
As an example, the famous core four that provided five World Series Championships for the New York Yankees are widely considered home-grown players. However, they consisted of three drafted players and one international signing. Jorge Posada was drafted in the 24th round of the 1990 draft. Mariano Rivera was signed as an international free agent in 1990. Andy Pettitte was drafted in the 22nd round of the 1990 draft. Derek Jeter was drafted in the first round of the 1992 draft.
Despite the experience earned professionally in Japan by Shohei Ohtani, he should be considered a home-grown player for the Los Angeles Angels. The same goes for Jose Abreu, who compiled many years of experience in Cuba before joining the Chicago White Sox.
It is very impressive if a team is able to reach the MLB playoffs without relying on spending big in free agency or acquiring already known talent through trades. The following teams are ranked from worst to first of being able to reach at least an AL Division Series with the most home-grown talent.
The Cleveland Indians have a very impressive group of home-grown players on their team, but they often utilize free agency and the trade market to their advantage.
The current 40-man roster of the Cleveland Indians contains 9 players signed through free agency. These players include Yonder Alonso, Brandon Barnes, Melky Cabrera, Rajai Davis, Jon Edwards, Edwin Encarnacion, Oliver Perez, Neil Ramirez, and Adam Rosales,
16 players were either involved in trades, purchases, or waiver claims by the Indians from another team. These players include Trevor Bauer, Michael Brantley, Carlos Carrasco, Adam Cimber, Mike Clevinger, Josh Donaldson, Yan Gomes, Brandon Guyer, Brad Hand, Corey Kluber, Oscar Mercado, Andrew Miller, Tyler Olson, Dan Otero, Eric Stamets, and Ben Taylor,
This leaves 15 home-grown players currently on the Indians 40-man roster. These players include Cody Allen, Greg Allen, Shane Bieber, Yu Chang, Yandy Diaz, Erik Gonzalez, Eric Haase, Jason Kipnis, Francisco Lindor, Julian Merryweather, Roberto Perez, Adam Plutko, Jose Ramirez, Josh Tomlin, and Bradley Zimmer.
Brantley, Carrasco, Clevinger, and Kluber have only ever suited up for the Indians at the MLB level despite previously being a member of another organization. Mercado and Stamets have also yet to play at the MLB level in their young careers.
The Indians have had a successful run over the last few years and have used an interesting mix of free agents, claims/purchases/trades, and draft/international signings to put together their current 40-man roster. Although it is impressive to scout young talent, it is very impressive to acquire so many impact starting pitchers and relievers to fill out the roster.
Brian Cashman and the rest of the New York Yankees front office are widely considered to primarily focus on free agency to build their roster. However, they have recently shifted their focus to acquiring impact players in trades, through the draft, or through international signings.
The current 40-man roster of the New York Yankees contains 4 players signed through free agency. These players include Aroldis Chapman, Jonathan Loaisiga, C.C. Sabathia, and Neil Walker.
21 players were either involved in trades, purchases, or waiver claims by the Yankees from another team. These players include Albert Abreu, Zach Britton, Luis Cessa, A.J. Cole, Domingo German, Sonny Gray, Chad Green, Didi Gregorius, J.A. Happ, Adeiny Hechavarria, Aaron Hicks, Tommy Kahnle, Lance Lynn, Andrew McCutchen, David Robertson, Justus Sheffield, Giancarlo Stanton, Stephen Tarpley, Gleyber Torres, Ronald Torreyes, and Luke Voit.
This leaves 15 home-grown players currently on the Yankees 40-man roster. These players are Domingo Acevedo, Chance Adams, Miguel Andujar, Dellin Betances, Greg Bird, Thairo Estrada, Brett Gardner, Kyle Higashioka, Jonathan Holder, Aaron Judge, Austin Romine, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, and Tyler Wade.
Higashioka was granted free agency before re-signing with the Yankees shortly after that occurred. He never signed with another team and was originally drafted by the Bronx Bombers, so he should still be considered a home-grown player.
Kahnle and Robertson were originally drafted by the Yankees, but they spent time on other teams before the team reacquired them alongside Todd Frazier in a trade from the Chicago White Sox in July of 2017. Although the Indians and Yankees both have 15 home-grown players on their roster, these two relievers helped break the tie as the Yankees have 17 players originally from their farm system on the current 40-man roster.
Cessa, German, Green, Sheffield, Tarpley, and Torres have only played at the MLB level with the Yankees despite being acquired by other teams while Abreu has yet to make his MLB debut. Due to this, these players are likely looked at as home-grown talent, but they do not qualify as home-grown talent for this list.
If these players, alongside Kahnle and Robertson, counted towards the Yankees total, the organization would have a very impressive 23 players from their 40-man roster considered home-grown talent. Nonetheless, the Yankees have a high number of home-grown talent on their roster at 15 players overall.
The Boston Red Sox have the highest payroll in the entire MLB at the moment. Although this may hint at utilizing free agency to build their team, they have a large amount of impact players that are home-grown talents.
The current 40-man roster of the Boston Red Sox contains 9 players signed through free agency. These players include Ryan Brasier, William Cuevas, J.D. Martinez, Mitch Moreland, Eduardo Nunez, Brandon Phillips, David Price, Tony Renda, and Marcus Walden.
15 players were either involved in trades, purchases, waiver claims, or the Rule V draft. These players include Nathan Eovaldi, Justin Haley, Heath Hembree, Brock Holt, Joe Kelly, Craig Kimbrel, Ian Kinsler, Sandy Leon, Steve Pearce, Drew Pomeranz, Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez, Chris Sale, Tyler Thornburg, and Steven Wright.
This leaves 16 home-grown players currently on the Red Sox 40-man roster. These players include Matt Barnes, Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Rafael Devers, Brian Johnson, Tzu-Wei Lin, Bobby Poyner, Robby Scott, Chandler Shepherd, Blake Swihart, Sam Travis, Christian Vazquez, Hector Velazquez, and Brandon Workman.
Despite being acquired from other teams Rodriguez and Wright have only spent time at the MLB level with the Red Sox. Haley was drafted by the Red Sox, but he spent time with the Twins before being a returned Rule V draft pick.
Although Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox current general manager, is not responsible for bringing in this amount of home-grown talent, he has been able to shape Boston’s current 108-win team without trading their young talent. This makes his signing of Martinez even more impressive as the team did not have to think about moving any of the home-grown talent that is currently on the 40-man roster.
Most of the impact players on the Houston Astros are home-grown talent, but they do have some key players that were acquired through trades and signed during free agency.
The current 40-man roster of the Houston Astros contains 5 players signed through free agency. These players include Charlie Morton, Josh Reddick, Hector Rondon, Tony Sipp, and Joe Smith.
15 players were either involved in trades or waiver claims by the Astros from another team. These players include Gerrit Cole, Chris Devenski, Evan Gattis, Marwin Gonzalez, Will Harris, Martin Maldonado, Jake Marisnick, Francis Martes, Collin McHugh, Brian McCann, Roberto Osuna, Brad Peacock, Ryan Pressly, Max Stassi, and Justin Verlander.
This leaves a whopping 20 home-grown players currently on the Astros 40-man roster. These players include Jose Altuve, Alex Bregman, Carlos Correa, J.D. Davis, Dean Deetz, Derek Fisher, Reymin Guduan, Yuli Gurriel, Josh James, Tony Kemp, Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers Jr., Cionel Perez, AJ Reed, Brady Rodgers, George Springer, Myles Straw, Kyle Tucker, Framber Valdez, and Tyler White.
Devenski, Gonzalez, and Martes have only ever suited up for the Astros at the MLB level. Perez had his initial free agent contract voided, but re-signed with the Astros again shortly after that occurred. As the Astros are the defending World Series Champions, having half of their 40-man roster as home-grown talent is very impressive.
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Roster construction recap:
The four remaining AL teams in the MLB Playoffs rank in the following order from least to most regarding free agent signings on the roster: Yankees (4), Astros (5), Indians (9), and Red Sox (9).
Regarding all non-amateur signings or free agency signings, the teams rank in the following order from least to most: Astros (15), Red Sox (15), Indians (16), and Yankees (21).
Regarding the home-grown talent on each roster, the teams rank in the following order from least to most: Indians (15), Yankees (15), Red Sox (16), and Astros (20).