Colombia is an interesting country from a baseball perspective. The South American country does play baseball, but the bulk of the baseball quality is all along the northern coast, facing the Caribbean.
As of the time of writing, 34 Major League ballplayers were born in Colombia. 3 players on this roster will be Rule B.
Stadium
Normally when you’re finding a national stadium, you want something in the capital, or largest city, or something like that. But as I said, Colombian baseball is highly concentrated on the Caribbean coast. The big city in that area is Barranquilla, and that city’s Estadio Édgar Rentería is the best spot for baseball in Colombia.
There’s never been a Colombian-born manager in MLB. There will be occasional countries and states that just don’t have one. I could attempt to speculate and assign a player to the role, or check WBC management, but I’d prefer not to. We’ll simply note this fact and skip the managerial section in such cases.
Pitchers
The Starting Rotation
Jose Quintana1 (Arjona, Bolivar, 2012-present, 2141+ IP, 3.75 ERA, 115+ W, 1836+ K, 33.72 WAR) — Colombia’s ace might be on the tail end of his career, but he’s still going, and he’s very obviously their best pitcher, arguably their best overall player2.
Jose Quintana. Credit: Joe Bielawa Julio Teheran (Cartagena, Boliva, 2011-2024, 1470.2 IP, 3.85 ERA, 81 W, 1260 K, 19.67 WAR)
Guillermo Moscoso (Maracay (VEN), 2009-2013, 222.2 IP, 4.28 ERA, 166 K, 2.0 WAR) — While there’s definitely a drop between the second and third starters, these pitchers are still major league pitchers here to shut teams down.
Yohan Pino (Turmero (VEN), 2014-2015, 79.2 IP, 4.63 ERA, 63 K, 0.3 WAR)
Luis Patiño (Barranquilla, Atlantico, 2020-2023, 136.1 IP, 5.02 ERA, 124 K, -0.41 WAR) — The numbers may not be good, but he made it to the Show, and sometimes, that’s what matters.
Bullpen
Ernesto Frieri (Arjona, Bolivar, 2009-2017, 303.1 IP, 3.53 ERA, 73 S, 387 K, 2.00 WAR)
Nabil Crismatt (Barranquilla, Atlantico, 2020-2025, 211 IP, 3.71 ERA, 187 K, 0.71 WAR)
Tyron Guerrero (Boca Chica, Bolivar, 2016-present, 111.1+ IP, 5.82 ERA, 120+ K, -1.76 WAR) — Until recently, was listed as “Tayron Guerrero”, but this is apparently a clerical error and just isn’t his name. Bad look for MLB, really.
Reiver Sanmartin (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2021-2025, 84.1 IP, 5.66 ERA, 73 K, -0.37 WAR)
Didier Fuentes (Tolu, Sucre, 2025-present, 38+ IP, 6.39 ERA, 40+ K, -0.20 WAR)
Emiliano Fruto (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2006, 36 IP, 5.50 ERA, 34 K, -0.39 WAR)
Yhonathan Barrios (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2015, 6.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 7 K, 0.30 WAR) — It’s a tiny sample size, but it’s a tiny sample size without giving up any runs.3
Jhon Romero (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2021-2022, 9 IP, 4.00 ERA, 9 K, 0.11 WAR)
Batters
The Starting Nine
SS Édgar Rentería (Barranquilla, Atlantico, 1996-2011, 2327 H, 140 HR, 294 SB, .286/.343/.398, 32.44 WAR) — The stadium is named for this guy. He’s the leader of this team in every respect.
Édgar Rentería. Credit: FOX2NOW St. Louis 1B Donovan Solano (Barranquilla, Atlantico, 2012-2025, 805 H, .277/.332/.378, 7.63 WAR) — Primarily a second-baseman, he’ll play first as we really need a first baseman.
2B Orlando Cabrera (Cartagena, Bolivar, 1997-2011, 2055 H, 123 HR, 216 SB, .272/.317/.390, 21.31 WAR) — Quite similar to the captain, in fact a primary shortstop — he’ll be the backup, just played enough second base that moving him is an easy call. The second best hitter on this team.
3B Gio Urshela (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2015-2025, 73 HR, .270/.314/.407, 8.50 WAR) — He’ll be the backup at first and an emergency shortstop.
RF Harold Ramírez (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2019-2024, 517 H, .285/.322/.406, 3.57 WAR)
C/DH Elias Díaz (Maracaibo (VEN), 2015-present, 638+ H, 72+ HR, .246/.300/.384, 5.8 WAR) — Díaz and the next guy are both catchers and both need to be in the lineup every day with the available players. They’ll split time catching.
DH/C Jorge Alfaro (Sincelejo, Sucre, 2016-2025, 412 H, .253/.301/.391, 2.26 WAR)
LF Jolbert Cabrera (Cartagena, Bolivar, 1998-2008, 362 H, .257/.306/.365, -0.06 WAR) — Played just about everywhere, but left field was actually his primary position and where we need him most anyway.
CF Óscar Mercado (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2019-2023, 211 H, .237/.289/.388, 2.24 WAR) — A defensive center fielder.
The Bench
C Meibrys Viloria (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2018-2023, 49 H, .198/.270/.279, -0.35 WAR) — Carrying a third catcher might feel unnecessary, but it’s best to be safe if two of them are going to be in the lineup every day. We don’t have quality players chomping at the bit to join the bench in any case.
2B Dilson Herrera (Cartagena, Bolivar, 2014-2020, 48 H, .199/.290/.386, -0.10 WAR) — Actually the best infielder available to back up, and with the starters all able to shuffle, can be the first one called upon in many cases.
2B/3B Jordan Diaz (Monteria, Cordoba, 2022-2023, 73 H, .227/.276/.358, -1.05 WAR) — Primary backup at third base.
OF Gustavo Campero (Lorica, Cordoba, 2024-2025, 21 H, .202/.272/.346, -0.41 WAR)
Honorable Mention
SS/2B: Jackie Gutiérrez (Cartagena, Bolivar, 1983-1988, 227 H, .237/.261/.285, -5.57 WAR) — If the lower batting averages of the guys on the bench offend you, maybe this guy is your option. Negative 5 WAR is what I couldn’t stomach, though. But he did manage to stick around in the Bigs for a while — there are no truly bad Big Leaguers, or they wouldn’t be there. The only player with more than 53 hits left off the team.
Colombian baseball is getting better all the time and I’m sure this team will look quite different before too many more years, though it’s slightly sad there haven’t been any at-bats taken by Colombian position players in 2026. We’ll
Wikipedia reports his first name as José but I’m sticking to what baseball-reference says for consistency (and I only even checked Wikipedia here because I grabbed the photo from there). In general, if you suspect diacritics may be missing, it may be a case of an issue on baseball-reference’s end, as I’m by and large accepting their naming conventions. Of course, it’s just as possible that I just outright missed it and screwed up, too.
Counterpoint: It’s not Estadio Jose Quintana.
Top IP left off the roster: 25.2