Behind top prospect Arjun Nimmala, MLB eyes India as next hotbed for talent and fans

NBC News

6 days ago

Baseball is known as America's pastime, but it has long been a global game. From the Dominican Republic to Japan to Venezuela, the sport reigns supreme for fans, and countless players are on Major League Baseball rosters.
The next country that could soon be on that list? India.
While its residents may prefer a different game with a ball and a bat — cricket — it's also the motherland of Arjun Nimmala, the top prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Picked 20th overall in the 2023 draft, Nimmala is the first first-generation Indian American to be selected in the first round.
Nimmala, who grew up outside Tampa Bay, Florida, said his father introduced him to cricket at a young age but also taught him baseball. He fell in love with the sport and played competitively all the way through high school until the Blue Jays selected him at just 17 years old.
Two years later, he is ranked No. 46 out of 900 prospects by MLB and considered a future centerpiece of the organization.
While Nimmala, currently with the Blue Jays' high-A affiliate Vancouver Canadians, continues to ascend the minor leagues, MLB is doing extensive outreach in India by putting together tournaments for children and taking baseball programs to schools.
'We want to try to introduce the sport to as many kids as possible,' Chris Marinak, MLB's chief operations and strategy officer, told NBC News. 'That's the foot in the door. That's the way that you educate kids on the game — you get kids to fall in love with it, and they become fans for the rest of their lives.'
He said the goal is to take baseball to India both on the fields and inside homes.
'We're focusing on getting our MLB games on broadcast and streaming,' Marinak said. 'We have two partners in India right now that are putting games live for the postseason and the regular season, and we're seeing great interest from fans around consumption.'
MLB opened an office in India in 2019 and since 2021 has hosted the MLB Cup, a tournament for amateur youth teams across the country.
Nimmala traveled to India in 2023 to see the initiatives the league was producing and to help grow the game in the country where much of his family still lives.
'To be able to go there and not only see that baseball is a part of India, as well, but just also trying to make it bigger, I think that makes me super proud,' Nimmala said. 'Knowing that I have a possibility of doing that and just seeing how much baseball is played in India already, I thought was very cool.'
Asked how big baseball can be in India, a country with 1.46 billion people, Marinak said MLB has high goals.
'When you have a billion fans that are watching cricket, it creates a real opportunity to grow the sport,' he said. 'If we can get baseball to the scale of cricket, it would be a huge penetration into that market. It would look a lot like what you see in Japan [and the] United States. It can be done.'
Nimmala says the goal remains to make the major leagues, though that could take multiple years because of his age and experience. His 17 home runs last year led all players ages 18 or younger, and after some early-season struggles, he turned up his production in the second half.
From June 27 on, Nimmala hit .265/.331/.564 with 13 homers over his final 53 games.
Known as a solid fielder, he has elite arm strength, according to MLB.com.
But the stats tell only one part of his story. By just being on the field, Nimmala is inspiring a whole new generation of Indian players.
'I do get a lot of messages, especially on Instagram, from younger kids that are Indian that start to play baseball,' he said. 'They're like, 'Dude, I really look up to you.' I think it's super cool to see that.'
But even with all the responsibilities of being a trailblazer, he's keeping his eyes on the prize.
'I have 100% confidence that I will play with the Toronto Blue Jays one day and make an impact.'