(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
   Andrelton Simmons signs one-year contract with Chicago Cubs
Nederlands
  CHICAGO, Illinois / MESA, Arizona (USA) -
Andrelton Simmons will play for Chicago Cubs this season.
On Tuesday (March 15), it was announced that the short stop had signed an one-year contract with the National League-club, worth four million dollars.
Up to now, Simmons was without a contract, as he was a Free Agent after completion of last season when he played for Minnesota Twins.
Simmons now will join the Chicago-team in its Spring Training-home in Mesa, Arizona.
...Andrelton Simmons playing for the Netherlands during...
...the 2017 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Spring Training officially opened last Sunday after more than three months of negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.
A new agreement was reached last Thursday.
Because of these ongoing discussions and negotiations, Spring Training starts later, as does the exhibition season and the regular season.
The first Spring Training-games will be played coming Thursday.
The regular season opens on April 7, instead of March 31.
However, all teams will play a full 162-game schedule.
At the moment, Andrelton Simmons is one of ten players with a Dutch passport in Spring Training.
The others are catchers Hendrik Clementina (Atlanta Braves) and Chadwick Tromp (Atlanta Braves), infielders Ozzie Albies (Atlanta Braves), Sherten Apostel (Texas Rangers), Xander Bogaerts (Boston Red Sox), Didi Gregorius (Philadelphia Phillies), Carter Kieboom (Washington Nationals) and Jonathan Schoop (Detroit Tigers) and outfielder Jurickson Profar (San Diego Padres).
All players are on the 40-man rosters of their respective clubs, except for Clementina.
He was added to the team of Atlanta as a non-roster player last Sunday.
Pitcher Kenley Jansen is still a Free Agent at the moment and without a club.
It is rumored that he will return to Los Angeles Dodgers for whom he has played his entire Major League-career since 2010.
Besides these players, Hensley Meulens is one of the coaches of New York Yankees.
At the end of February, Netherlands Team-Manager Meulens became one of the Assistant Hitting Coaches of New York.
Another coach with an Orange-connection is Pat Murphy, who is the Bench Coach of Milwaukee Brewers.
Murphy was the Manager of the Netherlands Baseball Team in 1987 and during the Olympic Games in 2000.
The 32-year old Andrelton Simmons made his Major League-debut in 2012 when he played for Atlanta Braves.
The short stop played four seasons (2012-2015) for Atlanta and then was traded to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim for whom he played five seasons (2016-2020).
After being a Free Agent after the 2020 season, Simmons was signed by Minnesota Twins for the 2021 season to a 10.5 million dollar contract.
Last year, Simmons played in 131 games for Minnesota and batted .223 with three homeruns and 31 runs batted in.
The 131 games he played in is the highest total since he played in 146 during the 2018 season.
In ten Major League-seasons, Simmons played in 1,191 games and collected 1,156 basehits, including 70 homeruns.
He also recorded 200 doubles and 23 triples.
In his big league-career, the Curaçao-born Simmons has also been praised for his defensive skills.
He won four Gold Glove Awards (2013, 2014, 2017, 2018).
In his ten Major League-seasons, Simmons made only 100 errors in 5,175 chances (3,326 assists) as short stop and participated in 778 double plays.
In 2013 and 2017, Simmons participated with the Netherlands National Team in the World Baseball Classic.
Both times, the Orange-squad reached the Semi-Final and finished in fourth place.
(March 15)
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