Elias von Garßen

From BR Bullpen

Elias von Garßen

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

Biographical Information[edit]

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. [1] He was 0 for 3 with a walk in the 2013 European Cup. [2] He went 2 for 9 with two walks, a run and two RBI in the 2013 European U18 Championship, starting at catcher for Germany. [3]

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). [4] He was 1 for 1 with 3 walks and 3 runs in the 2014 European Cup. [5]

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. [6] He was 0 for 6 in the 2016 European Champions Cup. [7] 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. [8]

The Freising native hit .167/.545/.333 in the 2017 European Champions Cup. He was 10th in the event in OBP. [9] With Howard gone that year, he struggled defensively (.972 FLD%, 12% CS) while batting .257/.346/.300. [10]

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. [11] 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. [12]

Sources[edit]