Sem Kuijper

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 180 lb.

• School Mineral Area College

• Born December 21, 2003 in Haarlem, Noord-Holland The Netherlands

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Sem Kuijper has played in the Hoofdklasse and for the Dutch national team.

He debuted with DSS in the 2020 Hoofdklasse, going 1 for 3 with a walk. He became a regular in 2021, hitting .296/.436/.457 and fielded .952 as a 3B/C. His 3 triples were one shy of co-leaders Shaldimar Daantji and Jason Jakobus. He drove in six runs in five games in the 2021 U18 European Championship, batting .200/.294/.533 as all 3 of his hits were for extra bases. He was the primary backstop for the champs. He tied Emilson Haswell for 6th in RBI.

Kuijper produced at a .312/.434/.472 rate with 35 runs and 32 RBI in 36 games in the 2022 Hoofdklasse, fielding .935. The teenager was 5th in slugging (between Koen Halderman and Jochem Koedijk), 9th in OBP (between Jakobus and Mark Smit), 3rd in runs (after John Polonius and Brendly Martina), 4th in RBI (between Halderman and Polonius), tied for second in triples (3, one behind Christian Diaz), tied Yurdion Martie for 9th in walks (26) and tied for 3rd in sac flies (4).

He was 4 for 9 with 4 walks, 4 runs and 4 RBI when the Netherlands won the 2023 U-23 European Championship. In the 2023 Hoofdklasse, he fell to .250/.369/.340. He threw out 24 would-be base-stealers, second in the loop, despite not being in the top 10 in steals allowed (he yielded 25, throwing out 49%). He came to the US for college in the 2023-2024 season and produced at a .397/.478/.699 rate with 47 RBI in 46 games for Mineral Area College.

In the 2024 Haarlem Baseball Week, he hit .286/.375/.643 for the Netherlands, smacking a two-run homer off Yu-Chieh Wang of Taiwan in the Bronze Medal Game win. He won the Carl Angelo Award as the event's most popular player. He was 5 for 12 with two runs in the 2024 U-23 Baseball World Cup. In that year's Hoofdklasse, he batted .293/.376/.388 for DSS. He placed 10th in doubles (12).

Sem hit a whopping .563/.650/.750 with 4 walks and 4 runs in 5 games in the 2025 U23 European Championship. He tied Mathis Meurant for 4th in average, was 3rd in OBP (behind Michal Šindelka and Gedionne Marlin), tied Raydley Legito for 8th in slugging, tied for 3rd in hits (9), tied for the most doubles (3) and tied for 6th in walks. That summer, he moved to Neptunus. He slumped to .221/.300/.262, fielded .989 and threw out 34.6%. Neptunus won the 2025 Holland Series. Making it to the Dutch senior national team for the 2025 European Championship at age 21, backing up AAA veteran Hendrik Clementina at catcher. He got into one game, coming in during their rout of France. He flew out against Nathan Laot his lone time up. The Netherlands won the championship.