Andy Van Hekken comes to New Britain for his 21st year of professional baseball and fourth in the Atlantic League. The former big leaguer has spent the past six seasons with the Nexen Heroes of the Korean Baseball Organization, including a brief stint the with the Seibu Lions of the Japan Pacific League in 2016. With Nexen, he made 156 total starts, posting a 73-42 record with a 3.56 ERA and 860 strikeouts over the course of 925.2 innings of work.

Andy was originally drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the third round of the 1998 MLB amateur draft. He spent one year with the Mariners organization before being traded to the Detroit Tigers. After three successful campaigns with the Tigers, the lefthander made his Major League debut on September 3, 2002 with Detroit. He had one of the more memorable big league debuts, by throwing a complete game shutout against the Cleveland Indians, allowing only eight hits and two walks. Overall, he made five starts for the Tigers and collected a 3.00 ERA in 30.0 innings pitched. After a few more seasons in the minor leagues, he made his Atlantic League debut in 2006 with the Somerset Patriots and would pitch parts of three seasons in Somerset.

In 520 career minor league games (449 starts), Andy has posted a 195-132 record with a 3.85 ERA and 2,152 strikeouts in 2,771.0 innings pitched.