The Italian Baseball League club Rimini has signed former Major League pitcher Mike Ekstrom. The 30-year-old Oregon native, a right-hander, pitched in a total of 51 games in the big leagues between 2008 and 2012. He is coming from the Perth Heat, where he won the Australian Baseball League a few days ago.

Ekstrom had an ERA of 5.61 in Major League Baseball and an ERA of 3.80 in the Minors. In 2013 he split time for the Triple-A affiliates of the Los Angeles Angels and Oakland Athletics. With the press release the Pirates also confirmed that German national teamer Enorbel Marquez-Ramirez returns for the 2014 season. Ekstrom, Marquez-Ramirez and Jose Escalona will form the foreign pitching trio of Rimini.