With Spring Training now here, we are moving closer to the MLB regular season across Arizona sports betting. It made us wonder, which MLB team has done the best job at drafting & keeping talent in their city?
Utilizing FanGraphs.com, we found the number of players on each MLB team that was homegrown (drafted or signed) on their projected 40-man roster for the upcoming 2025 season.
MLB Teams with Most Homegrown Talent
Rank | Team | # of Players | % of Players |
1 | Cleveland Guardians | 25 | 62.5% |
2 | Colorado Rockies | 23 | 57.5% |
T-3 | Houston Astros | 21 | 52.5% |
T-3 | Minnesota Twins | 21 | 52.5% |
T-3 | San Francisco Giants | 21 | 52.5% |
T-3 | Arizona Diamondbacks | 21 | 52.5% |
T-7 | Detroit Tigers | 20 | 50.0% |
T-7 | Kansas City Royals | 20 | 50.0% |
T-7 | St. Louis Cardinals | 20 | 50.0% |
10 | Cincinnati Reds | 19 | 47.5% |
Arizona sports betting apps list the Los Angeles Dodgers as the World Series favorite at +300. Atlanta is second at +750.
While the Arizona Diamondbacks’ quest to reach the MLB postseason ultimately fell flat last fall, that’s not to say that the immediate future isn’t bright in the Valley of the Sun.
That’s because the D’backs managed to win more games (89) last season than they did the year before, when Arizona went 84-78 but caught fire in the postseason, making it to the franchise’s second World Series before falling to the Texas Rangers in five games.
Last fall, Arizona was unable to rekindle that sort of October magic, with the D’backs finishing 89-73 but finishing nine games behind the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West and losing a tiebreaker with the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets for the final Wild Card spot.
This season, oddsmakers from DraftKings Sportsbook give Arizona -125 odds of returning to the playoffs, with a win total over/under of 86.5 and +650 odds of winning the West, ranking second behind L.A. (-450) and ahead of the San Diego Padres (+1000).
One thing that’ll likely help Arizona’s quest to return to October baseball in 2025 is the arrival of shortstop Jordan Lawlar, who enters the spring as the 11th ranked prospect in baseball, according to MLB.com, with the 6’1 infielder that was taken sixth overall in the 2021 MLB Draft likely adding a lot of pop in Arizona’s order while also providing top notch fielding in the middle of the infield.
Arizona Among Leaders in Homegrown Talent
In the 30-team MLB, Arizona’s homegrown count of 21 players ranks in a tie with the Houston Astros, Minnesota Twins and San Francisco Giants for third leaguewide, ranking behind the Cleveland Guardians’ total of 25 players and the Colorado Rockies’ 23 players.
Arizona ranked ahead of four teams on the MLB homegrown talent leaderboard, with the Detroit Tigers, Kansas City Royals and St. Louis Cardinals all having 20 players apiece that they drafted or signed, while the Cincinnati Reds rounded out the list with 19 homegrown players on their roster.
Despite the fact that 2024 MVP finalist Ketel Marte, who posted a whopper of a WAR total (6.8 in 136 games) last season, did not count towards Arizona’s total for 2025 (as he was acquired from the Seattle Mariners in a trade back in 2017), fellow prospects-turned-studs like Geraldo Perdomo (3.5 WAR in 98 games), Corbin Carroll (3.4 WAR in 158 games) and reliever Justin Martinez (2.0 WAR in 64 games) all are players expected to make an immediate impact inside Chase Field that made their way through the team’s farm system in recent years.
All of them will be counted on heavily this season as Arizona looks to return to the sport’s postseason after coming achingly close a year ago, with the D’backs hoping to rely on the cast of homegrown talent to get them over the hump this fall.
