Originally <a href='http://www.sportsbookreview.com/forum/showthread.php?p=26199176'>posted</a> on 08/31/2016:

There's a certain tendency in some Latin American countries to use "exotic" first names. I don't think it's specific to Russian ones. If you look at the Dominican baseball players, besides Vladimir, you'll find non-traditional, non-Hispanic names like Israel, Edwin, Fausto, Omar, Yhency, Ambiorix, Eude, Tilson, Nelson, Neftali, Yorkis, Hanley, Esmil, Yohanny, and many others.

There are also many more players with clearly Russian first names - For example there are lots of Puerto Ricans and Panamanian Ivans.
It seems quite likely, that the trend started in Cuba in the early 1960s for reasons of political affinity, and spread thence to other countries around the Caribbean Sea.