What’s next for the Heidenheim baseball players? As German Cup winners, the Heideköpfe have once again qualified for the European Cup and this competition is also the focus of the plans for 2025. A player who will help bring the trophy to Heidenheim has already been chosen.
It’s the Canadian Logan Hoffmann. The 25-year-old can look back on several years of experience in American professional baseball. He succeeds Jared Mortensen and is expected to give the HSB baseball players a good chance of winning in games with foreign pitching.
A pitcher from the Pirates
Hofmann played outstandingly in college and for Northwestern State University, then was selected in the fifth round of the annual draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2020. He played for teams from this club in the Single A and A+ leagues, wore the Pirates’ major league jersey for the first time in spring training in 2023, but was discarded at the end of the season. That year, Hofmann played for the Trois Rivieres Aigles in the Independent Frontier League.
With 134 strikeouts in 129 minor league innings, he has already proven his throwing class overseas and is now expected to lead the Heideköpfe to new titles as a starting pitcher. Whether he can even get a German passport because of his German ancestors is currently being examined. The HSBers are also looking forward to a returnee: homegrown player Luca Hörger, who is doing well in US college baseball, will play in Heidenheim again for a few months after the end of the season in the USA.
Farewell to Drew Janssen
However, the Heidenheimers also have to cope with a serious departure: the Belgian Drew Janssen, with his top performances and his versatility a guarantee of the successes of the past few years, has said goodbye with a heavy heart. The decisive factor was professional reasons; he is living in his homeland again and will play for Neptunus Rotterdam in the neighboring country in the future.
Otherwise, the team remains largely together, but a lot can still happen before the start of the season in early April and manager Klaus Eckle is considering, among other things, signing another pitcher with a German or EU passport. The Heidenheimers want to put together a strong team especially for this year’s international mission.
New mode again in the Champions Cup
This Champions Cup will be held again in a new mode in 2025. This time there are six teams at the start, which will determine the final participants in two groups of three. And for once the Heidenheimers were lucky. As Voith Heideköpfe they will meet in two home game series on the 14th/15th. June on the Croatian champions Olimpija Karlovac and on 5/6. July against the Czech runner-up Trebic Nuclears. The German champions Bonn, the Spanish representative Valencia and the Czech champions Brno compete in the other group. The European Baseball Champions League final will take place on July 30th.
The Heideköpfe, however, look forward to the Bundesliga season with mixed feelings, because despite urgent appeals, a regular season with 30 games within 15 weeks was scheduled again. The quarter-finals were canceled and there is no German Cup this year. Except for the first two teams in the North and South groups, the season ends on July 19th. The long break between the regular season and the play-offs, which begin on August 16th, is also very unfavorable for the rhythm of the game. It’s expected to start for Heidenheim on April 5th with a home game against Stuttgart.
Another 30 games in the regular season
The strain on the clubs is also reflected in the field of participants. Of the former 16 first division teams, eleven remain – six in the south and five in the north. There would have only been four teams there, but now last year’s southern rival Hünstetten has been assigned to the northern group.
In the south, the Heidenheimers will again have to deal with Regensburg, Mainz, Munich-Haar, Stuttgart and Gauting. The reliever could play a pretty good role, as the Indians managed to lure standout pitcher Ryan Bollinger away from Haar. The top favorite is certainly Regensburg again, who have already announced two top-class additions.
Lots of tournaments
One reason for the very tight Bundesliga schedule is the planned preparatory tournaments for the German national team, which will then compete in the European Championships in Belgium and the Netherlands from September 19th to 28th. But it was precisely then that a shorter regular season would have been appropriate, according to the opinion of the Heidekopfs.
The national team, which will certainly include some Heidenheimers, will play the “WBC Qualifier” in Tucson (USA) from March 1st to 9th and the “Prague Baseball Week” in the Czech Republic from June 25th to 29th .
There will also be the U23 European Championships in Trebic (Czech Republic) from August 1st to 10th and the U18 World Championships in Chiba (Japan) from August 29th to September 7th.
