This week, pitchers and catchers report to their Major League Baseball teams in preparation for the 2026 season. Some of the most talented among them will also gear up for the international World Baseball Classic tournament, repping their nation with pride. But, for me, the inherent optimism of February baseball is inseparable from our ongoing century of American humiliation. Soon, an influx of workers from other countries will pour into Arizona, Florida, and Texas. They will resemble the exact people the United States is violently purging from public life.
Every MLB front office assigns a collective of people to help foreign players become champions on the field by calmly settling into American life. For those closest to the young Black and brown-skinned immigrants populating the league’s lowest rungs7, the potential for catastrophe is obvious.
“This shit is terrifying me right now,” said one front office staffer who works directly with foreign born players at the team’s training complex in Arizona. (“This shit,” meaning, helping Dominican ESL teens dodge a state-sanctioned ethnic cleansing, wasn’t part of the job description.) “Like, they need to get groceries. I worry about them being picked up at Walmart.”
Made worse is the feeling of trying to keep these players safe from more than crime or personal scandal, but the violent conduct of Donald Trump’s government. All without what they believe to be sufficient help from the league.
“The guidance we got from MLB is minimal,” said the staffer. “The league has advised us to tell the players to carry their papers with them at all times. That's it.” As masked patrolmen detain U.S. citizens for days at a time, being told they should flash their passport to a slave catcher is but a small comfort.
I’m fairly certain that ICE is not going to show up at a baseball complex looking for players to arrest. That would be dumb of them, plus [Rob] Manfred kisses Trump's ass, and Trump is a sports fan. But these guys also exist in the broader society around them and spend time away from the field at other places.
Three team sources1, each of whom have extensive experience working with young talent from across the Latin American diaspora, spoke to eyeblack about how they’re trying to ensure players and their families avoid tripping on ICE on their way to the ballpark. For some workers, what might be a difficult task on its own feels outright impossible when the league hasn’t provided clear instruction on how its players and their support staff should navigate an increasingly cruel, draconian, and racist immigration enforcement.
(MLB did not respond to multiple requests for questions about what procedures the league, if any, the league was taking to protect immigrant players and staff or equip staffers to advise foreign-born athletes.)
“You don't want to strike fear into them, so they're not like they're afraid to move every day,” said another worker for a National League club. “[But] given the current political climate, where speaking Spanish in the wrong place could get a call from someone. And then, ICE is there.”