Of all the storylines that played out within the Red Sox farm system last season, a Dutch national making his affiliated debut may have slipped through the cracks a bit.
Stijn Van Der Schaaf, who signed with Boston for $50,000 as an international free agent coming out of the Netherlands last January, appeared in nine games for the rookie-level Florida Complex League Red Sox in 2023. Granted, the Amersfoort native already had some professional experience under his belt, having pitched for HCAW Bussum of the Dutch Major League in 2022, but this represented an entirely new challenge.
As a 19-year-old, Van Der Schaaf did a bit of everything for Boston’s Fort Myers-based affiliate last season. In those nine appearances (one start), the right-hander posted a 4.42 ERA and 5.70 FIP with 14 strikeouts to 15 walks over 18 1/3 innings of work. He and Luis Cohen were the only members of the FCL Red Sox’ pitching staff to both start and save at least one game.
On the surface, an ERA north of four in rookie ball isn’t going to blow anyone away. With that being said, it is worth mentioning that Van Der Schaaf overcame a rough start to his debut season and actually ended it on a relatively strong note.
In three June outings (one start), for instance, Van Der Schaaf allowed seven earned runs and walked 10 of the 22 batters he faced over just 3 1/3 innings. From that point forward, though, the righty pitched to a far more encouraging 1.20 ERA (4.08 FIP) with 11 strikeouts to only five walks in his next six appearances (15 innings) after the calendar flipped to July.
All things considered, it’s rather impressive that — despite averaging more than seven walks per nine innings on the year as a whole — Van Der Schaaf held opposing hitters to a .167 batting average against. Interestingly enough, that figure remained the same in 48 plate appearances against right-handed hitters and 33 plate appearances against left-handed hitters.
Standing at 6-foot-4 and 185 pounds, Van Der Schaaf first drew interest the Red Sox and several other clubs in 2019. He performed well for the Netherlands in different international tournaments, including the 2022 U-18 European Baseball Championship, and was ultimately signed by international scout Rene Saggiadi a little less than 13 months ago.
“I chose Boston because I have the best feeling with them,” Van Der Schaaf told Honkbalsoftball.nl last January. “They have been following me since 2019, have seen the progress I have made every year, know my stats. Their story and perspective for me and what they want to achieve is good and appeals to me.”
Shortly after he signed, Baseball America’s Ben Badler identified Van Der Schaaf as a potential sleeper within Boston’s 2023 international class. In doing so, Badler tabbed Van Der Schaaf as a “deeper projection arm” with “a lot more room to fill out” and a “fasstball that has started to touch the low 90s.”
To expand on that, Red Sox assistant general manager Eddie Romero described Van Der Schaaf as “a good athlete” with room to grow when speaking with The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey last winter.
“He has really good arm action, free, loose he’s a good athlete,” Romero said. “In a small amount of time our scout saw a lot of improvement, right now he’s a two-pitch guy, we need to work on a third pitch, but we saw him touching 90 (mph) with a really good slider … he had average to tick-above-average spin on the fastball and really good spin on his slider as well.
“His fastball moves and we saw on video that he was overmatching guys,” added Romero. “There are still some inconsistencies because he’s still raw, we have a ways to go with a third pitch, but he was just improving and wanted to play pro ball and we were able to get him.”
Van Der Schaaf, who turns 20 in April, is not currently ranked by any major publication as one of the top pitching prospects in Boston’s farm system. He is, however, projected by SoxProspects.com to return to the Florida Complex League for the start of his second season in the Red Sox organization.
In years past, both the Florida and Arizona Complex League seasons commence in early June and end in late August. As Baseball America’s JJ Cooper reported on Tuesday, though, the 2024 FCL and ACL seasons will get start and finish a month earlier than usual. More specifically, they will begin on May 4 and wrap up on July 25.
Having said that, Van Der Schaaf — as well as several others in the organization — could be ready to make the jump to Low-A Salem well before the summer is over. Of course, that decision may be dependent on Van Der Schaaf’s development and what kind of role the Red Sox have envisioned for him moving forward.
(Picture of Stijn Van Der Schaaf: Bryan Green/Flickr)
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