SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Two and a half months before the start of the World Baseball Classic returned to Puerto Rico for the first time in 13 years, artist Roberto Biaggi took his Sharpie to a 1,000-square-foot wall at Hiram Bithorn Stadium and started tracing the faces of the Puerto Rican baseball legends he loves.

One of the eight he drew, before filling their outlines with broken tiles as part of a stadium renovation project, only recently completed his playing career. He won’t be eligible for the Hall of Fame for another two years.

But Biaggi knows baseball. He doesn’t need a crystal ball to be certain that stalwart St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina will be immortalized in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 2028 alongside six already-inducted Hall of Famers featured in his “Eternos” mosaic.

“Sometimes you gotta be gutsy,” Biaggi said.

Baseball writers have proved him right once before.

On the same January day this year’s voting results were announced, he had just placed the final tiles for the illustration of newly-elected Hall of Famer Carlos Beltrán. The only element of Beltrán’s election process he couldn’t predict was which hat the outfielder would ultimately choose — so, on Beltrán’s request early in the mosaic development, he went with Team Puerto Rico’s logo.

Beltrán appreciated Biaggi’s boldness, but he was nevertheless touched to see himself depicted amongst his homeland’s greats.

“‘What am I doing on that wall?’ You ask yourself that question,” he said. “Not because I didn’t have the career, just because I’m so humble about what I’m living right now. It’s such a blessing.”

Biaggi fell in love with the sport as a kid during the 1980s and ’90s, largely considered the golden era of baseball on the island. Fans like him got to watch the likes of Rubén Sierra, Benito Santiago, Juan González and the Alomar brothers start MLB careers that would last more than 15 years. They saw the rise of some of the island’s top baseball exports — catchers Iván Rodríguez, Jorge Posada and the Molina brothers — and celebrated as Carlos Delgado unseated Hall of Fame countryman Orlando Cepeda for most home runs hit by a Puerto Rican.

So when the mayor of San Juan approached him with a proposal to create a mosaic on a wall behind first base to complete renovations of the island’s largest stadium, Biaggi jumped at the chance to put his mark on the 64-year-old building — and inspire future generations of ballplayers and Boricuas alike.

“They inspired all of us, in every (career) field pretty much, to aspire to something gigantic like them,” he said.

It took Biaggi and a crew of four roughly 10 weeks of nearly-everyday work to install 20,000 pieces of broken ceramic tiles. Last week, when four of the living baseball players featured in the piece saw it for the first time before pool play in the Classic, their reactions validated the painstaking process.

“I know my art is pretty badass,” said Biaggi, who has been creating mosaics as public art across Puerto Rico and abroad since 2002. “But to hear that from Pudge (Rodríguez) makes it a hell of a lot different.”

The artwork depicts right-handed pitcher Hiram Bithorn, who, in 1942, became the first Puerto Rican-born player in the majors, at one end. On the other is Roberto Clemente, the first Latin American player elected to the Hall of Fame. Between the two are the island’s living Hall of Famers: Orlando Cepeda, Roberto Alomar, Rodríguez, Edgar Martínez and Beltrán.

And, of course, prospective member Molina.

“He’s going to the HOF,” Martínez said in Spanish. “It’s very good that he’s there.”