Puerto Rico, the Catcher Factory: Pudge, the Molinas and More
Forty Puerto Rican-born catchers have reached the majors, winning 31 Gold Gloves between them. The data behind the island's catching tradition, and one surprise.
When baseball people talk about catchers, Puerto Rico comes up fast. The numbers explain why.
40 of Puerto Rico’s 310 major leaguers were primarily catchers. That’s 12.9% of the island’s players, against about 9.5% for all major leaguers in history, making Puerto Rican players about 1.4 times as likely as the average big leaguer to wear the gear.
And they didn’t just get there. Puerto Rican catchers have won 31 Gold Gloves and earned 48 All-Star selections.
Pudge
The standard is Iván “Pudge” Rodríguez. He won 13 Gold Gloves, more than any catcher in major league history, along with 14 All-Star selections, the 1999 American League MVP award and 2,844 hits. He entered the Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Molina brothers
Then there’s the family that turned catching into a household trade. All three Molina brothers caught in the majors:
- Bengie Molina (1998–2010): 1,317 hits and two Gold Gloves.
- José Molina (1999–2014): 15 seasons, most of them as a trusted defensive backup.
- Yadier Molina (2004–2022): 9 Gold Gloves, 10 All-Star selections and 2,168 hits, all with the St. Louis Cardinals.
A deep bench
The tradition runs well beyond those four:
- Benito Santiago: 1987 National League Rookie of the Year, 3 Gold Gloves, 5 All-Star selections.
- Sandy Alomar Jr.: 1990 American League Rookie of the Year, 6 All-Star selections.
- Jorge Posada: 275 home runs and 5 All-Star selections.
- Javy López: 260 home runs and a .287 career average.
Two Rookies of the Year, a Hall of Famer and 31 Gold Gloves, all from a single island of about 3.2 million people.
The surprise
Here’s what we didn’t expect. As strong as Puerto Rico’s catching tradition is, the data shows an even stronger lean at another position: shortstop. Puerto Rican players are 2.1 times as likely as the average major leaguer to be shortstops, and 1.7 times as likely to play second base.
Puerto Rico is a catcher factory. By the numbers, it’s also a middle-infield factory.
See Puerto Rico’s full positional fingerprint and every player →
Statistics through the 2025 season, from the SABR Lahman Baseball Database. Position is the one each player played most, by games.