In the last few years, many Dutchies signed contracts with MLB organizations. Mostly players from Curaçao and Aruba but now and then also a player from the Netherlands. Yesterday another Dutch kid signed a deal with the Twins. RHP Donny Breek signed a seven-year deal with the Minnesota Twins. Breek is the seventh pitcher from the Dutch Kingdom who has signed a deal with the team from the Twin Cities.
After Breek started to play baseball at Almere ’90, he worked his way up to the hoofdklasse through the Scimitars baseball academy and HCAW. Eventually, he ended up at DSS in Haarlem. He debuted in the hoofdklasse in April 2016 in a game vs UVV from Utrecht. This year’s hoofdklasse stats were not really impressive but Breek is just 17 and he is still developing. His fastball reaches 88MPH already but as he grows older this will improve for sure.
Breek appeared in several European championships. He also was part of team Kingdom of the Netherlands in this year’s U18 World Cup. Several MLB clubs had shown interest in the youngster before, but after his good performance during the U18 World Cup, things started to speed up. His good performance against Japan was eye-catching. Breek kept the Japanese offense in check for five innings. During the tournament, he pitched 16.2 innings and posted an ERA of 1.08 (two runs allowed).
Because pitcher/pitching coach of DSS, Tom Stuifbergen, has pitched in the Twins’ organization he has opted for the team from Minneapolis. According to Breek, Stuifbergen told him the Twins is a good organization. Stuifbergen reached the AAA level in the Twins organization.
Breek also participated in last year’s Power Showcase in Miami. Breek thinks the Power Showcase has sounded the alarm bells for several MLB organizations.
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