Benni Salzmann

Benjamin Salzmann

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 242 lb.

• Born July 10, 1991

Biographical Information

Benjamin Salzmann has played in Austria and Czechia and for the Austrian national team.

He debuted in the Austrian Baseball League in 2008, going 4 for 18 with three walks, a double, run and two RBI for the Vienna MetroStars. In '09, the teenager became a regular and hit .259/.396/.272. He really blossomed in 2010, producing at a .354/.539/.561 clip with 25 runs, 27 RBI and 25 walks in 24 games. He also pitched, going 1-0 and allowing one run in 5 2/3 IP. He was 10th in the ABL in average, 4th in OBP, 3rd in slugging (behind import players Whitney Robinson-Pierce and Adrián Quirantes), 2nd in OPS (behind Robinson-Pierce), tied for 3rd in walks and tied for 4th in RBI.

Salzmann debuted for Austria's national team in the 2011 European Championship Qualifiers, backing up Moritz Hackl at 3B and Clemens Cichocki and Lutz Rauch at 1B. He was retired by Terrence Antonacci of Belgium his first at-bat and finished 0 for 10, while fielding .923. In '11, he hit .400/.495/.556 for Vienna with 28 runs in 24 contests. He was among the ABL leaders in average (3rd, behind Christian Tomsich and Dominik Loeffler), OBP (3rd), slugging (6th, between Loeffler and Cichocki), OPS (2nd) and hits (tied for 3rd).

He hit .438/.524/.688 in the 2012 U-21 European Championship, finishing 8th in average, 6th in slugging, tied Adam Hajtmar for 8th in OBP and 9th in hits (7). For the MetroStars that year, he was at .316/.427/.429 with 24 runs and 27 RBI in 26 games. He allowed four runs in 7 2/3 IP. He was 4th in RBI and 10th in hits (31). He was a corner infielder and DH for Austria in the 2013 B-Level European Championship, batting .200/.350/.200 and handling 19 chances error-free. In the 2013 ABL, he hit .300/.380/.407.

Benjamin hit .390/.485/.636 with 21 runs and 26 RBI in 20 games in the regular season in 2014 and .354/.456/.500 with 10 runs and 10 RBI in 13 games in the postseason as Vienna won the title. In the regular season, he was 4th in average, 5th in OBP, 4th in slugging, 4th in OPS, 6th in hits (30), tied for 6th in doubles (7), 3rd in RBI and tied for 2nd in homers (4, behind Devery Van De Keere). He split 2015 between Hrosi Brno in the Czech Extraliga (.229/.359/.386) and Vienna (.333/.473/.643 in 11 G).

In 2016, he was again with Vienna (.297/.392/.438 in 16 G) and Brno (.239/.507/.376, 5 HR). He hit .301/.464/.434 with 27 runs, 21 walks and 13 steals (in 14 tries) in 25 games for Vienna in 2017. He tied for 5th in walks, tied for 9th in runs and tied for 3rd in steals. He was named the ABL's All-Star second baseman. In the 2017 B-Level European Championship, he hit two homers off Israel's Alejandro Eskenaz in a 4-3 win and finished at .313/.500/.688 with 7 runs and 8 RBI in the round-robin, handling 25 chances error-free. In the round-robin, he was 9th in slugging (between teammates Loeffler and Dominik Talir), tied Tobias Siegrist and Felix Zimmerle for 2nd in runs, tied for 3rd in homers and tied for 3rd in RBI. He had the third-most chances of those who made no errors. In the finale, he hit third and played catcher, going 1 for 3 with two walks and a run in another win over Israel.

Salzmann's batting line in 2018 was .368/.530/.644 with 34 runs, 29 RBI and 23 walks in 24 games. He stole 9 bases in 9 tries and pitched more (1-2, 2 Sv, 3.45). He was 2-1 with a 4.15 ERA in the postseason while batting .200/.364/.257 with 9 runs in 10 games for the champion MetroStars. In the regular season, he was 10th in slugging, tied for 4th in OBP, tied for 5th in both runs and RBI, tied for 1st with 4 triples, tied for 3rd in walks, tied for 2nd in hit-by-pitch (7), tied for 9th in steals and tied for first in saves. He was again the All-Star second baseman. He was two-for-four with four walks, three runs and a RBI as Austria beat Lithuania for the 2018 European Championship Playoff, earning Austria a spot in the 2019 European Championship. He led the event in walks and only Samuel Hackl had a higher OBP.

During the 2019 ABL, he hit .377/.517/.580 with 24 runs in 20 games. He was 1-0 with 3 saves and a 2.25 ERA and fielded .947. He was 8th in the ABL in average, 7th in OBP and tied for 2nd in saves (one behind Christoph Vanas). He was again the All-Star at 2B.

In the 2019 Euros, he started at DH and hit cleanup in their opener against Belgium. He drew a walk from Cédric De Smedt his first time up, then singled. He later had a four-hit game against Great Britain and homered off Croatia's Marin Tadić. He played 1B, 2B and DH during the tournament and hit .409/.519/.636 with five runs, five RBI and five walks in six games, fielding .941; only Moritz Scheicher hit better for Austria and only Ferdinand Obed had more runs for them. He even pitched 1 2/3 shutout innings. Overall for the Euros, he was 6th in OBP.

His batting line in 2020 was .355/.500/.645 and he had 17 runs and 20 RBI in 17 games. He fell to 1-2, 5.74 on the hill. He was 8th in the league in slugging, tied for 5th in OBP, tied for 2nd in runs (6 behind Philipp Eckel), tied Tobias Kiefer for 10th in RBI, tied for 2nd with 7 doubles (one behind Richard Alzinger), tied for 8th with 3 homers and tied for 9th with 8 steals.