Calten Daal

Carlton Aaron Daal prefers Creole spelling of Calten over legal name spelling of Carlton

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 180 lb.

• Born August 1, 1993 in Willemstad Curacao

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Calten Daal has played in the minors and for the Kingdom of the Netherlands national team.

Daal was signed by Cincinnati Reds scout Jim Stoeckel. He made his pro debut with the 2013 AZL Reds and was 3 for 21 with a walk but got bumped up to the Billings Mustangs, hitting .224/.269/.245 there. He batted .296/.334/.351 for the '14 Dayton Dragons, stealing 13 bases in 16 tries but fielding .911 with 39 errors at short. He missed the last month due to injury. Had he qualified, he would have edged Jake Bauers for 5th in the Midwest League in average. He led the league's shortstops in errors, though, and tied Wilson Amador for 2nd among all minor leaguers, behind Franchy Cordero.

Moving up to the Daytona Tortugas in 2015, he split time between 2B and SS and cut his errors to 22. He hit .270/.311/.286 and stole 21 bases in 26 tries. He missed the last couple weeks with another injury. He tied Juan Perez for 6th in the Reds chain in swipes.

He was the 2nd-youngest position player on the Netherlands in the 2015 Premier 12, with only Gianfranco Wawoe being younger. Starting at short for the Dutch, he singled off Wei-Lun Pan of Taiwan in his first at-bat. He had a 3-hit day in a win over Cuba. He hit .348/.348/.435 for the event and handled 18 chances error-free. He was named the first All-Star shortstop at a Premier 12 ahead of players such as Hayato Sakamoto, Gregorio Petit and Yordan Manduley.

The Willemstad native's injury woes continued to bog him down; he hit .310/.365/.379 for the 2016 Pensacola Blue Wahoos but was limited to 40 games due to a shoulder injury and a concussion. He then missed all of 2017 to injury and a right shoulder problem kept him off the field for all but four games in 2018.

Daal was finally healthy enough to play regularly enough in 2019, with the Chattanooga Lookouts but was now old for his level due to time missed. He still hit for good contact - .301/.322/.348. Playing mostly second base, he fielded .945. He led the Southern League's second basemen with 16 errors but would have edged Daulton Varsho for 3rd in average had he qualified. He and Varsho would both play in the 2019 Premier 12.

Calten was back with the Netherlands for a busy fall. In the 2019 European Championship, he started at second. He had 3 hits and 3 RBI in the opening loss to Czechia. He kept on hitting while his team did not lose again - he had 3 hits in a win over Israel and 3 RBI against Great Britain. His 8th-inning single off Spain's Lowuin Sacramento scored Kalian Sams with the only run of the game. He finished the first two rounds at .419/.424/.613 with 7 runs and 8 RBI, with homers off Marek Minařík and Jeremy Voets. He fielded .969. He was 10th in the event in average and 2nd in hits (13, one behind Marco Cardoso). In the Gold Medal Game, he was 1 for 4 with a walk from the leadoff spot and was caught stealing while handling four chances error-free in a win over Italy.

The Netherlands moved on to the 2019 Europe/Africa Olympic Qualifier. Daal had the tourney's first hit (off Ondřej Satoria) and first run. He finished the tourney 5-for-11 with a double, steal and the one run while fielding .933, with an error against Israel leading to an unearned run in the loss that kept the Dutch from locking up a spot in the 2020 Olympics (they were already a fair bit behind by the time). Only Petr Čech had a higher average among regulars, though Daal missed the last two games, presumably due to injury (he was removed for a pinch-runner with less speed during game 3). His third tourney of the fall with the Netherlands was the 2019 Premier 12. He was not as dominant as in the 2015 edition of the event but did fine (2 for 8, R, 2 PO, 5 A, 0 E) but the Netherlands did not get much else as his teammates hit .193.

A free agent, he was signed by the Minnesota Twins that off-season.