Cuba started the 2026 Major League season with 26 players on Opening Day rosters — the most ever, past the old high of 23 set in 2016, 2017 and 2022. By mid-season, 29 Cuban-born players had appeared in at least one game. And in July, seven Cubans were selected to the All-Star Game in Philadelphia, which MLB itself called a record. For a country whose national team just went out of the World Baseball Classic in the first round, it is a strange kind of golden age: Cuban baseball has never been weaker at home or stronger in the Majors.
The seven All-Stars
| Player | Team | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Yordan Álvarez | Houston Astros | Started at DH for the American League |
| Andy Pagés | Los Angeles Dodgers | Started in centre field for the National League |
| Yandy Díaz | Tampa Bay Rays | Reserve |
| Randy Arozarena | Seattle Mariners | Reserve |
| Miguel Vargas | Chicago White Sox | First All-Star selection |
| Raisel Iglesias | Atlanta Braves | First All-Star selection, in his twelfth season |
| Aroldis Chapman | Boston Red Sox | At 38 |
Two of the seven were first-timers, and they are opposite stories. Miguel Vargas is 26 and arriving; Raisel Iglesias waited twelve big-league seasons for the call. Two started the game itself — Álvarez for the American League, Pagés in centre for the National.
The season Álvarez is having
Through late August, Yordan Álvarez is hitting .319 with 36 home runs and 91 runs batted in, with an OPS over 1.000 — numbers that have him squarely in the MVP conversation. He is the best Cuban hitter of his generation and 2026 is his best year.
How the rest of the seven are doing
| Player | Team | 2026 through late August |
|---|---|---|
| Yandy Díaz | Rays | .306, 19 HR, 72 RBI |
| Miguel Vargas | White Sox | .251, 29 HR, 76 RBI |
| Randy Arozarena | Mariners | .272, 20 HR, 58 RBI |
| Andy Pagés | Dodgers | .272, 21 HR, 80 RBI — on the injured list since 21 August with a fractured hand |
| Raisel Iglesias | Braves | 27 saves, 3.00 ERA |
| Aroldis Chapman | Red Sox | 30 saves, 1.81 ERA at age 38 |
Chapman’s season deserves its own paragraph
Fourteen years after his debut, Aroldis Chapman is closing for Boston with a 1.81 ERA, was named American League Reliever of the Month for July, and on 4 July recorded his 1,364th strikeout as a reliever — the most by any reliever in Major League history. The hardest thrower the game has seen is ageing into its most durable.
The next wave
The pipeline has not stopped. Left-hander Kendry Rojas, from Ciego de Ávila, debuted for the Minnesota Twins on 22 April. Cuban reporting notes more prospects waiting in the minors for September call-ups, which could push the season’s total past 29. And one era quietly closed: José Abreu, the 2020 MVP, has not played in the Majors since June 2024.
What the record actually means
No official source explains why 2026 broke the record, so treat this as our reading. The previous highs came in 2016, 2017 and 2022 — the years the great defection wave of the mid-2010s was cresting. The 2026 class looks like the second harvest: players like Pagés and Vargas who left as teenagers and needed most of a decade to arrive. It is the same story this site keeps finding from the other side — the Can-Am tours, the closed legal routes, the first-round exit at the Classic. The talent did not disappear. It moved.
More
- Team Cuba: the national team’s full record
- How Cuban baseball is organised, and how players get out
- When Cuba played North America: the Can-Am League years
- Luis Robert Jr: Cuban career, stats and the Mets trade
Spotted an error in this article? Let us know and we'll correct it.
