WILLEMSTAD - MLB Elite Development Program (EDP) Curaçao is in full preparations to send a delegation of its players to the MLB 2024 Breakthrough Series Invitational at the Jackie Robinson Training Facility in Vero Beach, Florida. The tournament will take place from the 13th to the 16th of June and will consist of U17 players from the best baseball development programs in the United States, Puerto Rico, Brazil and Curaçao. The eleven players from the MLB program in Curaçao will team up with nine players from the Brazil program and form an international team.
The MLB EDP Curaçao program has been training intensively for the past 3 months with a group of twenty-eight selected players, preparing themselves for a possible professional career or for the chance to obtain a scholarship with an American university. The local program is being led and coordinated by coach Eduardo de Leon (Spain) and assisted by Temi Liendo (Venezuela), Enrique Burgos (Panama) and the local coaches Rudy van Heydoorn, Gustavo de Jongh and Clinton Leocadia. Coach de Leon is very satisfied with how the players in the program have been developing their baseball skills the last couple of months and he sees a lot of potential in them. Coach de Leon in the past also coordinated the MLB program in Brazil and he knows the players and their potentials. In Vero Beach he will be the manager of the combined team Brazil/Curaçao.
Minister Economic Development and Tourism Ruisandro Cijntje, a great baseball fanatic and supporter, visited Tio Daou Ballpark recently to see how the local MLB EDP program was developing. Coach de Leon gave him a briefing on the local project and minister Cijntje later shared some words of wisdom and encouragement to the players. He asked them to give their all to continue to develop themselves and that in the future he hoped to see them play professionally or with and American university. He wished the group of players going to Vero Beach much success and to represent the island of Curaçao proudly. The participation of our local players at the tournament in Vero Beach serves in a way also as positive promotion for the island. It is good to mention that the Curaçao Tourism Board (CTB) together with the Curaçao Baseball Development Foundation are the two local sponsors of the MLB Elite program.