Baseball Players from South Carolina
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Current Pro Baseball Players from South Carolina (MLB 2023)

Baseball Players, and athletes of all sports really, take pride in where they’re from. Whether it’s the state, city or area code – you always notice players wanting to rep their home area.

Fans tend to do the same thing. It’s always more fun to pull for a player when they’re from your home state (or even your hometown), especially when that player also happens to be playing on your favorite team.

With all that in mind, we went through MLB.com and pulled every player’s home state (or country) on the 40-man rosters for each team.

We found 10 players from the state of South Carolina on major league rosters. That’s a very respectable number that ranks South Carolina tied for the 25th most of any state (tied with Maryland and Wisconsin).

As far as individual cities, Greenville is the most well-represented with 3 players followed by Sumter with 2. (They’re the only two cities with more than one)

MLB Players from South Carolina

Here are the 10 guys representing the state of South Carolina on MLB Rosters at the start of the 2023 season including what town he’s from and what team he plays for.

NameCityTeam
Carl Edwards JrNewberryNationals
Chad GreenGreenvilleBlue Jays
Eli WhiteGreenvilleBraves
Emilio PaganSimpsonvilleTwins
Jay JacksonGreenvilleBlue Jays
Jordan LylesHartsvilleRoyals
Jordan MontgomerySumterCardinals
JP SearsSumterAs
Whit MerrifieldFlorenceBlue Jays
Xzavion CurryOrangeburgGuardians

Player Bios

Here is a little more background info on a few of the standout players from the state of South Carolina:

Whit Merrifield

Whit Merrifield was born in Florence, South Carolina and grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He attended the University of South Carolina from 2008 to 2010, where he made a significant impact on the baseball team.

In his freshman year, Merrifield hit .326, earning SEC All-Freshman honors. He continued to excel in his sophomore season, batting .340 and playing in all 63 games. Merrifield’s most notable contribution was leading the Gamecocks to the 2010 College World Series title, driving in the winning run and securing the team’s first national championship.

Merrifield’s college career at South Carolina established him as one of the program’s top hitters and a clutch performer in critical moments​​​​.

Jordan Lyles

Jordan Lyles, born in South Carolina, grew up a Braves fan, idolizing player Chipper Jones. He attended Hartsville High School in South Carolina, where he developed his baseball skills and garnered attention as a promising pitcher.

Lyles had committed to play baseball at the University of South Carolina, but his plans changed when he was signed by the Houston Astros in 2008.

His early entry into professional baseball marked the beginning of his journey in the major leagues, where he has since made a name for himself as a skilled pitcher, contributing significantly to the teams he has played for​​​​ over his 13-year career.

Jordan Montgomery

Jordan Montgomery, born in Sumter, South Carolina, attended Sumter High School. There, he played for the school’s baseball team and achieved tremendous success, being named the state’s player of the year as a senior.

Montgomery’s impressive performance in high school, which included a perfect 11-0 record with a 0.38 ERA and 114 strikeouts over 74.1 innings, led Sumter High School to the 2011 South Carolina AAAA High School State Championship.

His exceptional senior year culminated in a shutout in the state championship game. Montgomery’s high school achievements laid a solid foundation for his future success in baseball​​​​.

Hall of Fame Players from South Carolina

In addition to the current players from South Carolina, we compiled a list of all players that have gone on to make it into the Baseball Hall of Fame:

NameCity Induction Year
Jim RiceAnderson2009
Ben TaylorAnderson2006
Larry DobyCamden1998

Baseball Hometown Fun Facts

California, by far, has the most current MLB players of any state with 189.

The second most was the state of Florida with 89, followed by Texas (78), Georgia (40) and New York (38).

The Dominican Republic has 120 players currently in major league baseball which is incredibly impressive considering the country has a total population of only 11 million people. By comparison, the state of California has a population of 39 million and the state of Florida has a population of almost 22 million.

Other States

We are slowly but surely getting all the states published from the data we collected. Here are a few of the other states we currently have available.

Current MLB Players from Rhode Island

Current MLB Players from Pennsylvania

Current MLB Players from Oregon

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