MLB teams are increasingly helping their Latino prospects earn high school diplomas

MLD sending more players to get high school diplomas.
(Image credit: Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)

The New York Mets, aka Los Mets, are among the six Major League Baseball teams to offer their young Latino prospects — primarily ones from the Dominican Republic — high school degree programs. Two or three more teams plan to join in, USA Today reports.

"I gotta tell you, we're working with a new generation of baseball players. You see in the past that players just carry a bat and a glove and a helmet on the baseball field and in the academy," said Juan Henderson, who runs the Mets' Dominican academy. "Those years, I think, are going to be pretty much over. Now they also do that, but they also carry books, they also carry an iPad, they also carry a laptop."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"You can't stress ... enough how if the baseball thing doesn't work out then you have nothing left to fall back on," the Dominican-born Robles said. "If you do this, you can go to college and you can have a future."

Explore More
Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.