Padres Already Lead MLB in One Category This Season

The San Diego Padres and the Atlanta Braves have the most internationally born players heading into the 2026 season, with a total of 15 each on their respective rosters.

The Padres' feat snaps a five-year run in which the Houston Astros led Major League Baseball in this category. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Miami Marlins (13), Seattle Mariners (12), Boston Red Sox (11), Los Angeles Dodgers (11), New York Mets (11) and San Francisco Giants (11) round out the top 10.

The Braves and Padres have the most internationally born players (15 each) on their respective rosters, snapping a 5-year run in which the Astros (14 in 2026) led MLB. The Diamondbacks & Marlins (13), Mariners (12), Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets & Giants (11 each) round out the Top 10.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) March 26, 2026

MLB.com's Mark Feinsand reported how many countries are represented on MLB rosters for the 2026 season.

"Opening Day rosters included 247 players from 16 different countries and territories outside of the U.S., MLB announced. That’s 26.1% of the 948 players on 26-man rosters and the injured list.

"The Dominican Republic leads the way with 93 players, followed by Venezuela (60), Cuba (20), Canada (17) and Japan (14).

"Rounding out the list are Puerto Rico (14); Mexico (7); Curaçao (4); Panama (4); Colombia (3); South Korea (3), Aruba, the Bahamas, Honduras, Nicaragua & Taiwan (1 each)," Feinsand wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter).

While the Padres already achieved an impressive milestone in 2026, the team has much loftier goals for the season.

Everyone in San Diego is rooting for the Padres to make a deep playoff run, but that goal began on quite the nightmarish game as the team suffered an 8-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Thursday, before losing 5-2 on Friday.

Padres Start Season 0-2 Against Tigers

Nick Pivetta, who is poised to anchor the starting rotation this season, allowed four runs in the first inning and six runs over his entire three-inning performance on Opening Day.

“Nick didn’t pitch the way he normally pitches,” shortstop Xander Bogaerts said. “I don’t know. He might not have the feel for his pitches because he wasn’t close to being as sharp as he normally is, and that kind of sucked a little bit for him, because he normally commands all of his pitches pretty well. But today he couldn’t go to any one of his pitches. They were all just very unlike him. But he’ll bounce back. I mean, he’s Nick.”

The starting rotation is the team's biggest weakness in 2026 and Pivetta's poor performance certainly didn't invoke much confidence in the unit.

“I would love that game back,” Pivetta said. “But that’s not reality. That’s not how the world works. Just look to capitalize on a couple days off that I have here, get a good bullpen sesh, get back to who I am.”

Manager Craig Stammen became the third Padres skipper to lose his debut, but acknowledged the lineup facing reigning back-to-back American League Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal was a good first test for them.

“A great pitcher, a good test for us on Opening Day,” Stammen said.

The Padres followed Thursday's game with a 5-2 loss to the Tigers on Friday. The Padres led going into the eighth inning after seven strong innings from Michael King and Adrian Morejon. However, Jeremiah Estrada and Wandy Peralta combined to allowed three hits and three walks, with all four runs being charged to Estrada.