From the Associated Press:

No US-born Black players on expected World Series rosters
By BEN WALKER
yesterday

… When fans watch the Houston Astros and Phillies line up this week to begin the Fall Classic, it will be a much different picture.

To be sure, Houston’s Jose Altuve and Philadelphia’s Jean Segura are among scores of Latin players helping keep big league rosters diverse.

But for the first time since 1950, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier, there project to be no U.S.-born Black players in this World Series.

Zero.

The best player in big league baseball over the last two years has been the unique pitcher/slugger Shohei Ohtani from Japan.

Major League baseball started to get whiter about 15 years ago, in part due to teams shifting to keeping more pitchers on their rosters. Pitching is a highly technical position that doesn’t require footspeed, so whites do well at it.

Latin American players have also been fine pitchers because they grow up in their own countries and need to play all positions.

In contrast, African-Americans have been declining as pitchers since shortly after the Satchel Paige Era due to integration. On integrated high school teams, African-Americans are more likely to play outfield where speed is valued, shortstop, second base, or first base, but less so third base, pitcher, or catcher.

In the early days after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, big league teams tended to have two African-Americans: the historic superstar (Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Ernie Banks, or Roberto Clemente) and his roommate.

In recent years, the gap between player achievement (WAR) and roster percentage has narrowed, but remains because African-Americans are less likely to play baseball over basketball or football because they have have superstar potential. E.g., probably the best player on the best team over the last three years has been African-American Mookie Betts on the otherwise quite white Los Angeles Dodgers. Betts is also a professional bowler, so it appears likely his parents trained him to play both a big money sport lacking in black talent and a small money sport lacking in black talent. So, if his small stature kept him from making it in baseball, he could do well in bowling.

In contrast, there are a large number of white pitchers today who shuffle between the high minors and the major league.