Dutch Hoofdklasse players Dwayne Kemp and Shogo Nakashima are going to play in the Australian Baseball League for the Sydney Blue Sox in the upcoming European winter. Kemp follows in the footsteps of Dutch players Didi Gregorius, Bas Nooij and Loek van Mil, who have played in the ABL in recent years. He is currently playing for Curacao Neptunus Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Nakashima of the De Glaskoning Twins Oosterhout also signed with the Blue Sox. The right-hander from Japan played a couple of games with the Yakult Swallows in Nippon Professional Baseball before joining the Hoofdklasse for the 2018 season.