Baseball diversity highlights early stages of 2022 MLB Draft

For the first time in Major League Baseball history, four of the top five picks selected in the 2022 MLB Draft are black.

In the 2022 MLB First-Year Player Draft, we witnessed Druw Jones (#2 overall to Arizona Diamondbacks), Kumar Rocker (#3 overall to Texas Rangers), Termarr Johnson (#4 overall to Pittsburgh Pirates), and Elijah Green (#5 overall to Washington Nationals) make history. It was the first time we’ve ever seen 80% of the first five overall picks be black players.

Prior to Sunday’s draft, Jones, Jackson Holliday, Brooks Lee, Elijah Green, and Johnson were all in talks to be selected within the first five picks. Instead, we watched a shocking development of Rocker (failed to reach agreement with New York Mets in 2021 Draft) also being selected in the top five.

For the past few years, we’ve watched the substantial growth of diversity in baseball. According to Anthony Castrovince from MLB.com, beginning in 2021, when 37.6% of the players on Opening Day Rosters were minority-born players. That number increased significantly on 2022 Opening Day jumped up to 38%. That’s a promising percentage as we look towards the future.

It’s an issue that baseball has noticed for some time now and has been called out by some former players including former MLB pitcher CC Sabathia.

Obviously, it’s a change that has to start at grassroots level. It has to begin with Little Leagues/high school baseball. Two years in a row, we’ve watched at least 17% of the players drafted into MLB be specifically black players. In special thanks to programs like the PLAY BALL Initiative (Boys and Girls Club) and the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities (RBI), we’ve seen more diverse communities embracing the game of baseball.

Another contributor to this growth in diversity in baseball has to be credited to the Hank Aaron Invitational. In fact, 90% (of whom are Black) have gone on to play at the college level. One prime example of this program solidifying it’s key was watching Cincinnati Reds pitcher Hunter Greene debuting and becoming the first alumni from the program to play in the big leagues

All in all, it’s a sure sign things are trending in right direction to bring more diversity to the sport. Seeing so many of the top players in the draft being diverse will motivate others and show them the dream could become a reality for them as well. Today’s game is more diverse than ever before with over 30% of the players even being born outside of the United States.

It was another great night for baseball as they continue to expand their fanbase by reaching new viewers and families across the world.