Belgian Transactions for 2025: Braine Black Rickers

It’s that time of the year again to pay attention to the transaction in the Belgian Division 1. This time, we pay attention to the Braine Black Rickers, who earned a promotion to Division 1 in 2024.

The club from Braine-Le-Château did try to sign some national players for the 2025 season, but it has been difficult to attract them. Apparently most of these players weren’t attracted by playing for a former Division 2 club and doubt the club’s competitiveness.

According to coach Elio Basnueva, the Black Rickers have a solid core of players with Division 1 experience: Luis Manuel Vera, Orestes García Pupo, and Jayde Thorne. The only player, the Black Rickers could convince to join their ranks is Jean-Francois Rittweger, who played for the Division 2 team of Phoenix Mont-Saint-Guibert.

Elio Basnueva stated that the club has other high-level players like Jhoanderson Freitez and Yosuke Sakai, who posted great numbers in D2 last season. Although they haven’t played in D1 yet, they have the talent to perform well this year. On top of that, the Black Rickers regained Carlos Cortès, a very talented pitcher with D1 experience, who has been out for several months due to injury.

Elio sets a realistic goal for 2025: Trying to be competitive and secure the spot in Division 1 for the 2026 season. According to Elio, there is a good chance the goals will be reached with coach Carlos Urquiaga, who led the team from Division Three to Division One in three years.

The club will keep an eye on Division One players in an attempt to add them to the roster. Even though he doesn’t rule out the possibility, signing an import player is not a priority according to Elio. They rather look for a player with the Belgian status to bolster their pitching staff.

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

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