Žan Primožič

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born March 22, 2001

Biographical Information

Žan Primožič has played in the Bundesliga and for the Slovenian national team.

Primožič debuted for Slovenia at age 15, going 1-for-3 with a walk, double, two steals and two runs in the 2016 C-Level European Championship. He played for the minor league team of the Paderborn Untouchables in 2017, hitting .407/.477/.574, finishing third in average in the Bundesliga-2 Northwest. In '18, he was a backup middle infielder for Paderborn's top team, batting .268/.380/.293 in the Bundesliga-1. During the 2018 C-Level European Championship, he excelled at .563/.611/.688 with 4 runs and 5 RBI in 4 games while playing error-free defense. He was 4th in the event in average, 7th in slugging, tied Steffen Torgensen for 6th in OBP, tied Max Warren for second in hits (9), tied for 6th in RBI (5), tied Warren for 4th in total bases (11) and 6th with 7 assists. At age 17, he was already one of Slovenia's best players and competing well with players like Warren, a former NCAA Division I performer.

Žan struggled with Paderborn in 2019 (6-for-42, 4 BB, .871 FLD%). At the 2021 European Championship Qualifier, he was 4 for 10 with 5 walks and 5 runs in four games, fielding .875; he also pitched, striking out 11 in 6 IP and allowing three unearned runs. He tied for 4th in walks and tied Yevhenii Tkachenko and Mitchell Hillert for second in ERA; Dimitri Kourtis was at 0.00 in more IP.

In the 2022 European Championship Qualifiers, he was 3-for-10 with a double, homer, 3 runs and 6 RBI in 3 games. He handled 8 chances error-free and had a 2.25 ERA; he walked 6 and fanned 6 in 4 innings. He tied for 8th in walks issued. He kept it up in the 2024 European Championship Qualifier, going 7-for-14 with two doubles and four runs in four contests, going 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA (beating Slovakia's Jakub Ižold, a former Cincinnati Reds farmhand) and fielding .909. He made the leaderboards in the Beograd pool in hits (7, tied Graeham Luttor and Mário Gottschall for 4th), doubles (2, tied for 2nd), average (tied Luttor for 3rd), batters struck out (9, tied for 5th with Juraj Bartók and Lucas Favretto) and ERA (2nd, .17 behind Vojtěch Vlach).

Slovenia hadn't even qualified for the 2024 Federations Cup but their Kransji Lisjaki entry dominated the 2025 Federations Cup thanks in large part to Primožič; he was 8-for-12 with a double, three homers, six runs, nine RBI and three walks in four games, though he fielded .846. He was 1-0 despite a 8.08 ERA, beating Apollo Bratislava in a slugfest. He was 5th in runs, tied Ryan Mirza for second in hits, led in homers (one ahead of Mirza), was second in RBI (one back of Mirza), tied for the top average, was second to Kevin Whatley in OBP and led in slugging and OPS. He won the Cup MVP award.