(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by WBSC)
    Ten Kingdom-players open Spring Training on Major League-rosters
Nederlands
          CLEARWATER / FORT MYERS / LAKELAND / NORTH PORT / WEST PALM BEACH, Florida / GLENDALE / PEORIA / SCOTTSDALE / SURPRISE / TEMPE, Arizona (USA) -
Just over a week ago, pitchers and catchers had to report to the 30 Major League Spring Training-camps.
Earlier this week, all position players also had to be at the practice sites to start preparations for the upcoming season.
Ten professional players for the Kingdom of the Netherlands are currently on Major League-rosters, nine of them on a 40-man roster, one as a non-roster invitee.
Five of them are in Florida, the other five in Arizona.
On Friday, the first exhibition games are scheduled, played by five Major League-teams.
Two teams will face each other, the other three teams will play against a college-team.
On Saturday, all 30 Major League-teams will get into action and then will play almost daily.
During the exhibition season, all teams will add additional players for the these games.
And almost surely, more players from the Netherlands then will see some action, as was the case in previous Spring Trainings.
In 2018, a record of 25 players with a Dutch background participated in Spring Training.
The ten players who have started Spring Training with a Major League-club are Ozzie Albies, Sherten Apostel, Xander Bogaerts, Didi Gregorius, Kenley Jansen, Carter Kieboom, Jurickson Profar, Jonathan Schoop, Andrelton Simmons and Chadwick Tromp.
...Sherten Apostel runs the bases after hitting a homerun for...
...the Netherlands during the U23 World Cup 2018 in Colombia...
(© Photo: WBSC) |
Curaçao-born third baseman Sherten Apostel, who will turn 21 next month, is on a 40-man roster for the first time.
Last year, he played in one Spring Training-game for Texas Rangers and this time, he is on the roster of this team.
Apostel plays professionally since 2016.
Last year, he played at the Single-A level and batted .251 with 19 homeruns and 59 runs batted in.
Second baseman Ozzie Albies, short stop Xander Bogaerts, short stop Didi Gregorius, pitcher Kenley Jansen, third baseman Carter Kieboom, second baseman Jurickson Profar, second baseman Jonathan Schoop and short stop Andrelton Simmons also were on a 40-man Major League-roster last year.
Albies (Atlanta Braves), Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox), Jansen (Los Angeles Dodgers), Kieboom (Washington Nationals) and Simmons (Los Angeles Angels) all do that with the same club they played for last year.
Gregorius, Profar and Schoop begin the new season with a new club.
Gregorius is now playing for Philadelphia Phillies after having played for New York Yankees since 2015.
Last year, he didn't see action during Spring Training, as he was recovering from Tommy John-surgery.
After the season, he was a Free Agent, then signed with Philadelphia in December.
Schoop also was a Free Agent after having played for Minnesota Twins last season.
In late December, he signed with Detroit Tigers.
And Profar was traded early December to San Diego Padres by Oakland Athletics for whom he played in 2019.
Catcher Chadwick Tromp played in the organization of the Cincinnati Reds since 2013.
He became a Free Agent in November then was signed by the San Francisco Giants in January.
He was assigned to Sacramento River Cats (Triple-A) and was invited for Spring Training as a non-roster player.
Of these ten players six were born on Curaçao (Albies, Apostel, Jansen, Profar, Schoop, Simmons), two on Aruba (Bogaerts, Tromp), one in the Netherlands (Gregorius) and one in the USA (Kieboom).
All, except for Albies, Apostel and Kieboom have played for the Netherlands National Team (or Netherlands Kingdom Team).
Apostel played for the Netherlands U23 Team at the U23 World Cup in Colombia in 2018.
Apostel led the Orange Team during that event with a .375 batting average, twelve basehits, nine runs batted in and two homeruns.
He scored six runs.
In the 10-9 win against Taiwan (10 innings), Apostel was 3-for-5 (two doubles, one homerun).
In the game against the Czech Republic, the Netherlands trailed 3-0, then Apostel hit a 3-run homerun in the sixth inning to tie the score.
But the Czechs went on to win 4-3, thanks to a run in the ninth inning.
(February 20)
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