Cincinnati Reds scout Evert-Jan ‘t Hoen returns to the same question when he’s searching for baseball talent in the Netherlands: “Does he maybe have what it takes?”
Finding a potential Major League Baseball player in the Netherlands is not easy. The talent pool isn’t particularly deep and scouts are oftentimes assessing the skills of teenagers.
“Scouting is probably the hardest job in the world because you have to project if a player can play in the major leagues in like five or six or seven years, right?” Jan’ t Hoen said. “It’s almost impossible.”
There have only been 11 Dutch-born players in Major League Baseball history. A couple of them — Hall of Fame pitcher Burt Blyleven, former Reds signee Didi Gregorius — may ring a bell. But there’s another Dutchman enjoying a breakout season out of the bullpen with the Chattanooga Lookouts, and he’s trying to become the 12th.