List of First Major League Baseball Players by Country

The following is a list of the first Major League Baseball player from each country that has produced a player. Listed are the country, player, debut year of the player, and total number of players from that country to play in the MLB as of May 2018.

For the first players signed by a MLB team to a contract from various countries, see the List of first players to sign with a MLB team from different countries.

Nation	Player	Debut Year	Total Players
Afghanistan	Jeff Bronkey	1993	1
American Samoa	Tony Solaita	1968	1
Aruba	Gene Kingsale	1996	5
Australia	Joe Quinn	1884	30
Austria	Dutch Ulrich	1925	5
Austria-Hungary	Frank Rooney	1914	1
Bahamas	Ormond Sampson	1932	6
Belgium	Brian Lesher	1996	1
Brazil	Yan Gomes	2012	5
British Honduras	Chito Martinez	1991	1
Canada	Bob Addy?	1871	250
Canary Islands	Al Cabrera	1913	1
China	Harry Kingman	1914	1
Colombia	Lou Castro	1902	20
Cuba	Steve Bellan	1871	201
Curaçao	Hensley Meulens	1989	15
Czechoslovakia	John Stedronsky	1879	3
Denmark	Olaf Henriksen	1911	1
Dominican Republic	Pedro San	1926	717
England	George Hall/Harry Wright	1871	32
Finland	John Michaelson	1921	1
France	Larry Ressler	1875	7
Germany	David Lenz/Marty Swandell	1872	29
Greece	Al Campanis	1943	1
Guam	John Hattig	2006	1
Honduras	Gerald Young	1987	1
Hong Kong	Austin Brice	2016	1
Indonesia	Tom Mastny	2006	1
Ireland	Andy Leonard	1871	47
Italy	Lou Polli	1932	7
Jamaica*	Oscar Levis	1923	4
Japan	Masanori Murakami	1964	66
Latvia	Joe Zapustas	1933	1
Lithuania	Dovydas Neverauskas	2017	1
Mexico	Mel Almada	1933	125
the Netherlands	Rynie Wolters	1871	12
Nicaragua	Dennis Martinez	1976	14
Northern Ireland	P.J. Conlon	2018	1
Norway	John Anderson	1894	3
Okinawa	Bobby Fenwick	1972	1
Panama	Victor Greenidge?	1941	60
Peru	Jesus Luzardo	2019	1
the Philippines	Claudio Manela	1921	1
Poland	Henry Peploski	1929	5
Portugal	Frank Thompson	1875	1
Puerto Rico	José Torres	1926	264
Russia	Jake Gettman	1897	8
Saudi Arabia	Craig Stansberry	2007	2
Scotland	Jim McCormick	1878	8
Singapore	Robin Jennings	1996	1
South Africa	Gift Ngoepe	2017	1
South Korea	Chan Ho Park	1994	23
South Vietnam	Danny Graves	1996	1
Spain	Bryan Oelkers	1983	3
Sweden	Charlie Hallstrom	1885	4
Switzerland	Otto Hess	1902	1
Taiwan	Chin-Feng Chen	2002	14
Ukraine	Bill Cristall	1901	3
United States	Bobby Mathews	1871	16,751
United States Virgin Islands*	Alfonso Gerard	1945	14
Venezuela	Alex Carrasquel	1939	382
Wales	Peter Morris	1884	3
West Germany	Rob Belloir	1975	13

• - Valmy Thomas was born in Puerto Rico because there was better hospital care there, but his parents were from the Virgin Islands and returned there right after his birth. He preceded Joe Christopher to the majors.
  • - Prior to the Negro Leagues being recognized as major leagues, the following were the first major leaguers from their country: Jamaica - Chili Davis (1981); Puerto Rico - Hi Bithorn (1942); Dominican Republic - Ozzie Virgil Sr. (1956); Panama - Humberto Robinson (1955); Philippines - Bobby Chouinard (1996); Bahamas - Andre Rodgers (1957); US Virgin Islands - Joe Christopher (1959)