Elias von Garßen

Elias von Garßen

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 205 lb.

• Born July 27, 1996 in Freising Germany

Biographical Information

Elias von Garßen has caught in the Bundesliga and for the German national team.

He debuted with the Regensburg Legionäre in 2013, hitting .167/.448/.167 with 8 walks in 10 games, playing error-free ball as the backup to Christopher Howard at catcher. He was 0 for 3 with a walk in the 2013 European Cup. He went 2 for 9 with two walks, a run and two RBI in the 2013 European U18 Championship, starting at catcher for Germany.

Von Garßen became Regensburg's starting backstop at age 18 (Howard moving to 1B and DH while still doing some catching) and hit .224/.286/.293, but fielded .994, .001 behind Simon Gühring (the leader among Bundesliga-1 south catchers that season). He was 1 for 1 with 3 walks and 3 runs in the 2014 European Cup.

In 2015, he was 2 for 8 with a double, two runs and 3 RBI as Howard reclaimed the starting job and the team also brought in former Mets farmhand Kai Gronauer as a catcher-coach. He was 0 for 6 in the 2016 European Champions Cup. With Gronauer becoming a full-time coach that year, he split catching with Howard. He hit .270/.329/.324, fielded .986 and threw out 17.2% of those who tried to steal. He was one of the league's hardest batters to strike out.

The Freising native hit .167/.545/.333 in the 2017 European Champions Cup. He was 10th in the event in OBP. With Howard gone that year, he struggled defensively (.972 FLD%, 12% CS) while batting .257/.346/.300.

During 2018, he hit .185/.384/.204 with 18 walks in 19 games, made no errors in 159 chances and caught 4 of 14 would-be base-stealers. He tied Kevin Kotowski and Nateshon Thomas for 8th in the league in walks while leading catchers in fielding percentage. He made Germany's senior national team for the first time at the 2018 Super6. He replaced Vincent Ahrens behind the dish in the 6th inning of a mercy rule loss to the Netherlands and flew out against Diegomar Markwell in his lone at-bat. He took over for Ahrens in the 8th against Spain and grounded out against Carlos Sierra. Finally, he replaced Max Boldt in the 6th against Belgium. He was hit by a pitch from Kevin De Smedt and wound up scoring on an error by Benjamin Dille.