Belgian Transactions For 2024: Merchtem Cats

On December 15, 2023, the transaction period in Belgian baseball ended. We have reached the final chapter of the Division One teams. Today we pay attention to the Merchtem Cats.

Six players will not return to the Merchtem Cats as players. Tom Beeckmans will head to Brasschaat Braves. Domantas Trinkunas will join Borgerhout Squirrels, Jayde Thorne will skip the 2024 season, just to be away from the game. Phil Whelan will not return. He will play in Japan in 2024. Clement Dupuis and Bart Saerens will hang up their spikes.

Bart Saerens will become the new headcoach after Kris Beeckmans has decided to move to the Brasschaat Braves to become part of the coaching staff. Bart will have assistant coaches in Bram Conickx and Zino De Lauw.

But of course, the Cats will add some new names to its roster as well. Aaron Meert (from Borgerhout Squirrels) and Robin Reyns (from Cantincrode Baseball Stars (from Mortsel)) will join the club. Two former Cats, Kenny Dom (ex-Merchtem/Brasschaat) and Tom Vanderborght (ex-Merchtem/Borgerhout) will rejoin the club. Xavier Vincent (farm team, Division two) is also added to the Division One roster.

Likely, Aaron Meert will be an upgrade in the lineup when it comes to hitting. The utility player batted a solid .400 (four hits in ten at-bats). In Division two, Aaron batted .385 (five hits in thirteen at-bats).

Robin Reijns batted .252 (twenty-eight hits in one-hundred-and-eleven at-bats) with the Cantincrode Baseball Stars. He hit three doubles and a triple. In 2022, Robin had a near flawless season when it comes to defense. He committed only three errors (fielding percentage of .973). Last season he wasn’t as solid, as he committed fifteen miscues (.892).

According to Bart Saerens, two import players will be acquired for the 2024 season.

I’d like to thank Bart Saerens for the much needed information to write this blog post.

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