While Canadians are most known for being hockey players, there are a few Canadian prospects found on MLB teams. Here is a list of current Canadian players.
If I were to ask you which sport you would associate the most with Canada, chances are you won’t say MLB. Instead, most people would say either hockey or curling.
To be completely honest, they wouldn’t be entirely wrong either, as both of those sports are basically Canadian national pastimes. The rink is where family and friends meet for years and years every weekend. It is where friendships are made and where disputes are settled.
While Canadian athletes usually lace up their skates in the winter, a lot of hockey players trade in their hockey sticks for baseball bats in the summer. Some of them even stick with baseball when the NHL dream ends. Some of them are also quite good at it too.
In Canada, there are not a lot of routes to MLB in terms of college or high school ball within the country. There is just not enough time in the season for ball games compared to our friends in the south and most Canadian baseball programs have to start indoors when spring rolls around.
That is why many Canadian baseball players head down south to play in college ball, just to receive national attention from scouts other than the Toronto Blue Jays. While scouting in Canada is becoming increasingly popular, there is just more attention to collegiate and high school players in the United States.
Canada also does support many independent leagues within each province and even a few teams apart of leagues in the states, but many of these players are products of the farm systems of MLB teams looking for a place to play ball.
The one route that many Canadian high school prospects can take is through the Junior National U-18 team. This team is made up of the best Canadian high school prospects under the age of 18, and are all draft eligible in their last year (when they meet the requirements). They receive national attention because they participate in tournaments in the United States and sometimes in countries such as the Dominican Republic.
While many Canadians still pursue the hockey dream when it comes to athletics, if you look closely at your favorite baseball team, you may find some prospects, current players, or even alumni that have Canadian roots.