The first years (1918–1976) Founded in 1918, the team has included name players such as Teófilo Cruz, and Rafael Valle. Cruz, #13, played for 25 seasons being
MVP in 4 seasons and leading the BSN in points per game 2 times. He was the starting
center of the
PR national basketball team in the times when
Puerto Rico and
Brazil where the two most dominant teams in the
Americas outside the
USA. Valle, #5, arguably the best
power forward in BSN history, played actively in 8 seasons finishing MVP and first in points per game in 1956. He was active in 2
Olympic games, where he led Puerto Rico in scoring both times. After 2 championships, and several finals, the Santurce Crabbers played their last season in 1976.
The return (1998–2016) On 1998,
Angelo Medina acquired the Tiburones de Aguadilla and the
Capitalinos de San Juan, merged them and acquired other free agents (in a time when there was no Free Agency in the BSN) to revive the Cangrejeros, who started playing in the
Roberto Clemente Coliseum. The team featured players like:
Jose "Piculin" Ortiz,
Carlos Arroyo, Orlando "Guayacan" Santiago and
Jeffrey Aubry. Besides those players, Santurce featured as a coach
Julio Toro, who was the coach of the national team and had previously won a championship in the league. The team went on to defeat the
Leones de Ponce in the final.
Rolando Hourruitiner would join the Cangrejeros in 1999. Santurce won the BSN championship in 1999, 2000, 2001 (completing a rare, back-to-back-to-back-to-back four titles in a row run) and 2003. In all those championships the team was led by Ortiz, Arroyo and Horrutinier, the 3 then members of the national team. In 2007, the Cangrejeros won their eighth league championship.
Move from the Roberto Clemente Coliseum In 2005, the mayor of San Juan,
Jorge Santini, decided that the Cangrejeros could no longer play in the Roberto Clemente Coliseum because the assistance was low and it was not worth playing there and offered them the Pedrín Zorrilla Coliseum, which is used for volleyball. The mayor of
Guaynabo,
Héctor O'Neill, offered Medina use of the
Mario Morales Coliseum, located in Guaynabo, and Medina decided to split home games between there and the recently opened
Puerto Rico Coliseum. The games at the
Puerto Rico Coliseum averaged an attendance of 10,000. Santini and the municipality of San Juan insisted that the Pedrín Zorrilla Coliseum should be used, and even had a giant billboard in front of the coliseum that read “We want this (the Pedrín Zorrilla) to be the new home of the Cangrejeros”. The use of the "Quijote" Morales Coliseum contributed to the return of the
Conquistadores de Guaynabo. In 2007, the Cangrejeros advanced to the league's round robin, following a 73–70 victory over Fajardo. In this game
Robert Traylor scored the first triple-double in the season with 17 points, 15 rebounds and ten blocks. Santurce won the first game, but lost the second. This was followed by a series against the Gigantes de Carolina, winning the first game. In 2015, former Cangrejeros player and former
NBA player
Carlos Arroyo returned to the team after ending his music career, an endeavor in which he had briefly engaged.
Inactivity (2016–2020) In 2017, the team recessed. In 2018, the Cangrejeros were acquired by businessmen Ricardo García and Camilo Domínguez. Ricardo Garcia who is the owner of Havoc Media Group and Camilo Domiguez owner of Reydom Sports and entertainment group both entrepreneurs of Orlando Florida. After some controversy and some allegedly fraud in the part of Ariel Rodriguez who was the owner previous to Ricardo Garcia and Camilo Dominguez both are no longer owners of the team. During the exchange Rodriguez failed to provided accurate information of the debts owned to vendors, team staff, third parties, agents, coaches and players. After the team was taken over by Mr. Garcia and Mr. Camilo Dominguez many issues came to light. In one of the issues there was some controversy of misuse of money needed to pay debts passed on by Angelo Medina. Now the team has been recessed once again and Ariel Rodriguez continues to be the team owner and liable for over 400k + in debt.
Expansion franchise (2021–present) In April 2021, the league approved the return of the Cangrejeros under the ownership of Noah Assad and Jonathan Miranda, who were joined by urban artist
Bad Bunny the following month. Veteran point guard
José Juan Barea served as the cornerstone of a roster that had begun construction with the purchase of shooting guard Isaac Sosa's contract from the Atléticos. The staff was composed by
Néstor García, with former players
Elías Ayuso and
Carla Cortijo as assistants and Daniel Seoane as scout. More roster acquisitions, including import players
Dante Cunningham and
Thomas Robinson, as well as a return to the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum were announced during the off-season. Throughout the 2021 season the veteran roster of the Cangrejeros faced several difficulties, including recurrent injuries on Barea. While still in contention García was released from his contract, becoming the new head coach of the
Argentina national baseball team. Assistant Larry Ayuso took over the staff and lead it in a second half that saw the team fell to the fourth place of the B Division to close the regular season. Before the postseason began, the administration left José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum and moved to Roberto Clemente Coliseum. Cangrejeros faced Capitanes de Arecibo in their first round matchup, being eliminated in the series 2-4. During the off-season, Cangrejeros acquired guard
Gian Clavell in a trade, signed imports
Skal Labissière and
Tyler Hansbrough and free agents forwards
Ramón Clemente, Gilberto Clavell and Ángel Matías. The team also brought Iván Ríos as an assistant coach, ultimately taking over the full role when Ayuso left to join the Piratas in March 2022, with Luis Armando Cancel and Cortijo completing the staff. ==International performance==