In today’s episode of “Transactions in Belgian Baseball For the 2022 Season,” we pay attention to five-time Belgium champions Koninklijke (Royal) Mortsel Stars.
The Mortsel Stars, still located at the Southern end of the Antwerp Airport, where they will stay for the 2022 season before moving to their new facility (later, more about that), saw three players leave the club and acquired four new ones.
The players that left the club are outfielders Nestor Jaspe and Jhan Poll Henriquez, who will leave for the Brussels Kangaroos. Infielder Raxon Martinez will join the Brasschaat Braves.
The Stars got four players in return, all from the Antwerp Eagles, where several players decided to turn their backs on the club. Shane van Elsacker, Harold Langezaal, Jeroen van Ackeren, and Tobias Papanikitas decided to jump ships.
Shane van Elsacker is playing behind home plate, Harold Langezaal is an infielder, who can play multiple positions (2B, SS, and OF), Jeroen van Ackeren is a pitcher, and last but not least, Tobias Papanikitas can play the infield and the outfield. Unfortunately, no stats of the Division 1 Silver season (play downs) are available, so there is no additional information about these four players.
Regarding the new facility of the Mortsel Stars, chairman Damon Baesen stated the following: “As the baseball fans in the area of Mortsel can see, our new facility is taking shape. We can start with the finishing touches for which we need a hand or two. The bigger jobs that need to be finished, we have to do them ourselves and this will take several more weeks. The playing surface will not be ready for gameplay immediately. But no panic! The municipality of Mortsel has announced officially that we can stay at our current facility for one more year. This will give us the opportunity to prepare for the move from our current home to our new home. We hope that we will be able to organize the activities that were planned in November and December next to several other activities in 2022.
I would like to thank the chairman of the Mortsel Stars, Damon Baesen, for the much-needed information that allowed me to write this blog post that is brought to you by
Dutch Baseball Hangout 