SARASOTA, Fla. -- In the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, many young baseball players would be in their backyard imitating catches made by Andruw Jones, a premier MLB center fielder at the time. His popularity was even greater in the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao), as Jones made it from Willemstad, Curaçao, to the big leagues.
One of those kids looking up to Jones at that time was Xander Bogaerts, who can recall keeping handwritten score of games while watching Jones play for the Braves.
“To this day, when I’m in the outfield shagging [fly balls], I still do it as if I’m Andruw Jones,” said Bogaerts, who was born in Oranjestad, Aruba. “No other guy. No Ken Griffey. No Mike Trout. Andruw Jones. That’s how elite he was out there. And there’s a reason he’s a Hall of Famer.”
So, it’s easy to imagine how excited Bogaerts must be now, as he and the rest of the players representing the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the 2026 World Baseball Classic will be suiting up for Jones, a first-time manager in this year’s WBC. The 48-year-old served as the team’s bench coach in the past two Classics (‘17 and ‘23) and played in two as well (‘06 and ‘13).
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Team Netherlands took part in an exhibition game against the Orioles on Tuesday afternoon in Sarasota, then it will play another vs. the Rays on Wednesday in Port Charlotte. After that, the team heads to Miami for Pool D play.
Jones may be the man in charge now, but he isn’t viewing it that way.
“It’s just a great honor to be part of it. I don’t see it as a manager. I see it as a coach that is trying to help these guys win games,” Jones said. “It’s just a title that people give to each other, but we’re all coaches here and we’re just trying to win together.”
It will be another challenging road this year, as Pool D features Dominican Republic and Venezuela, two of the expected top teams in the tournament. Israel and Nicaragua are also in that group. The Netherlands is set to open pool play vs. Venezuela on Friday at noon ET on Tubi.
“I’m not even looking at the other teams. I’m trying to control our team and put them in a good spot so they can go out there and succeed,” Jones said. “I know all the teams have got a lot of great baseball players, they’ve got a lot of Major League Baseball players, but we’ve still got to go out there and perform the way we need to perform.
“I tell these guys, I believe in them, the coaching staff believes in them, so they need to start believing in themselves so they can go out there and make things happen.”
Team Netherlands has a good core of position players with MLB experience on its roster. In addition to Bogaerts, the squad’s veteran leaders include fellow infielders Ozzie Albies and Didi Gregorius, outfielder Ceddanne Rafaela and catcher Chadwick Tromp.
The pitching staff is less experienced, but Bogaerts is optimistic by what he’s seen from a youthful bunch of hurlers, many of whom are hard throwers.
“Listen, man, if you throw 88 [mph] in the middle, you’re going to get hit. But if you throw 95, you miss, you can still get away. It’s just the way the game is,” Bogaerts said. “The only thing is they don’t have the experience. But I mean, they’re throwing 90-something, you can get away with it, bro. And they’ll learn like me. I had to learn, and they’ll probably go through the same.”
It will surely help to have the leadership of Jones, not only because of his vast baseball experience, but because of his familiarity with the WBC and international competition.
“Definitely a great opportunity. It’s something really special,” Albies said. “He just got inducted to the Hall of Fame. That’s a huge accomplishment in his career. He definitely stood out for the island [of Curaçao] and Team Netherlands.”
“It’s going to be fun. It’s a Hall of Famer and everyone knows what he did, and he’s bringing that to us right now,” Gregorius added. “He’s bringing the extra knowledge.”