Article by: Elizabeth Cage, MLB International
The Kansas City Royals have announced that Liam Hendriks, a West Australian and member of the Australian Baseball League’s Perth Heat, will make his debut for their club in their Wednesday night game hosting Liam’s old team the Minnesota Twins (10:00 am AET Thursday). The game will pit the American League Central leading Royals against the last place Twins. Hendriks gets the start against the Twins Phil Hughes who is 14 - 8 with a 3.65 ERA.
Hendriks began the 2014 season with the Toronto Blue Jays’ Triple-A club, with several short stints with the Major League club, before being traded to Kansas City in July. He has a 12-2 record at Triple-A this year with a 2.45 ERA, with 126 strikeouts to only 13 walks in 143 innings; he is hoping to bring that form to Kaufmann Stadium tonight. In three MLB starts this season he is 1-0 with a 6.08 ERA.
Liam joins fellow Australian, Grant Balfour (Tampa Bay Rays, Sydney) in the Major Leagues. Three non-Australian alumni of the Australian Baseball League are also in the Major Leagues: Brandon Barnes (Sydney Blue Sox, Colorado Rockies), Didi Gregorious (Arizona Diamondbacks, Canberra Cavalry) and Kevin Kiermaier (Canberra Cavalry, Tampa Bay Rays). As the 2014 season got under way some 65 Australians and New Zealanders under contract with Major League clubs and other professional teams.