GERMANY – The Minnesota Twins have announced the signing of German pitching prospect Markus Solbach to a minor league contract. The Pulheim Gophers hurler becomes the fourth player from Germany to sign with the Twins organization.

“We’ve known about him for a while,” said Twins International Scouting Director Howie Norsetter. “I see in Markus a projectable talent with positive attitude and great drive to succeed. He is athletic, has a good arm action and has a chance of throwing the ball consistently hard, with some decent breaking stuff.”

“His progression has been freakish,” Norsetter said. “He has grown a foot in the past year and has gained throwing velocity over the past few months alone.”

Solbach, who pitched in Australia this winter, currently stands a towering 6-feet-5 and has seen his velocity rise to 90 mph. He will travel to the United States in April for extended spring training, and will pitch in Australia this summer as well as next winter.

There are currently five German ballplayers – Solbach, Max Kepler-Rozycki (Twins), Kai Gronauer (New York Mets), Donald Lutz (Cincinnati Reds) and Jennell Hudson (Boston Red Sox) – under contract with a MLB organization.

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