Spencer Kieboom, the catcher in the minor league organization of the Washington Nationals has been called up to fill the void left by Matt Wieters, who got injured during base running in a game vs the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Kieboom is one of three baseball sons from a Dutch-born father, who played in the Dutch hoofdklasse. Spencer made the preliminary roster of team Kingdom of the Netherlands in 2013 and 2017 but never made the squad. In 2013 that was because of an injury.
Kieboom started the season with the Syracuse Chiefs (International League) and hit .250 before he was called up. In his last game vs the Pawtucket Red Sox, he was seeing the ball very well as he hit 4 for 4. With an RBI and two runs scored he had a substantial part in the 6-4 victory of the Chiefs.
During last night’s game, Spencer sat in the dugout as Pedro Severino sat behind the dish for the full nine innings. It is not clear yet how long Kieboom will stay with the Nats since it is not clear how serious the injury of Matt Wieters is.
The 27-year old catcher had a cup of coffee with the Nationals in October 2017 as he appeared in one game in which he drew a walk in his sole at-bat and scored a run.
This spring training, Spencer played 26 games with the MLB squad, hitting .324 (twelve hits). So far with the Chiefs, Spencer helped his own case as a defensive catcher as he committed only one error and threw out eleven of twenty-one potential base stealers (52%).
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