Kevin Kotowski

From BR Bullpen

Kevin Kotowski

  • Bats Left, Throws Right
  • Height 6' 0", Weight 175 lb.

Biographical Information[edit]

Kevin Kotowski has played for the German national team.

Kotowski debuted in the Bundesliga-1 for the Mainz Athletics, going 3 for 29 with 7 walks and 13 whiffs at age 17 in 2008. He also was 1 for 6 with two walks in the 2008 European Cup. In 2009, he hit only .152/.250/.239 as a part-time catcher for Mainz. In the 2009 European Junior Championship, he was 1 for 4 with a hit-by-pitch, run and RBI for Germany. He also participated in the MLB European Academy that year. In 2010, he batted .273/.355/.283 as a C-LF for Mainz, tying for the team lead with 18 runs. During 2011, he hit .271/.358/.305. He then enrolled in Allan Hancock College. He did play for Mainz for part of 2012, hitting .267/.279/.400. He then joined Germany for the 2012 European Championship. He excelled as their right fielder and #9 hitter, going 12 for 23 with two doubles, four walks, a hit-by-pitch and five runs. He had 3 hits and 3 runs in a 5-4 win over the Czech national team. He was part of a strong youth movement alongside Lukas Jahn and future major leaguer Max Kepler on offense.

In 2013, he hit .256/.341/.299 for Mainz and had 62 putouts, one assist and no errors as their starting center fielder. He hit .273/.273/.364 in the postseason, with 9 putouts, one assist and no errors. In 2014, he improved his hitting to .333/.462/.410 with 12 steals in 14 tries, 26 walks and 28 runs in 28 games. He had 32 putouts, one assist and no errors. He tied Jay Pecci for 9th in the southern Bundesliga-1 in runs, was second in walks (one behind Shawn Larry), was 9th in OBP, tied for 6th in steals and ranked third in steal percentage. He was back with Germany's team for the 2014 European Championship, batting .313/.421/.375 while splitting RF with Moritz Buttgereit. He had a three-hit game versus Sweden.

The Frankfurt native hit .339/.450/.422 for the 2015 A's, stealing 17 bases in 20 attempts, scoring 25 runs in 27 games and finally making an error (2, fielding .969). He hit .333/.364/.333 in five postseason games with 11 putouts afield. For the regular season, he tied Sascha Lutz for 4th in walks (19), tied for the steal lead, was third in steal percentage and missed the top 10 in OBP by .006. In March 2016, he was on Germany's entry in the 2017 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers but did not get into a game; Christoph Ziegler was their only other unused position player. Kotowski was hurt by the presence of American ringers Kent Matthes (of German descent) and Dominique Taylor (German-born).

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