Riley O’Brien of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches in opposition to the San Francisco Giants throughout the golf equipment’ Main League Baseball regular-season sport at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Oct. 8. Yonhap
Riley O’Brien, the half-Korean pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, plans to pitch for Korea on the World Baseball Traditional (WBC) in March, a report out of St. Louis stated Saturday (native time).
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Submit-Dispatch stated O’Brien, 30, accepted the invitation from the Korean nationwide crew and is engaged on plans to journey to Japan, the place Korea will play all 4 opening-round video games.
The event goes from March 5 to 17.
Due to free eligibility guidelines for the WBC, gamers can characterize the nation of start of one in all their dad and mom, even when these gamers themselves weren’t born in that nation. For the 2023 WBC, Korea had Gold Glove-winning infielder Tommy Edman, who was born within the U.S. to a Korean mom.
O’Brien was born to a Korean mom and has the Korean title Chun-young.
Korea supervisor Ryu Ji-hyun stated earlier this month he was hopeful about three to 4 U.S. gamers of Korean descent would be part of his crew for the WBC. Whereas Edman has already been dominated out as a result of an offseason ankle surgical procedure, Korea, along with O’Brien, might also get the providers of Detroit Tigers outfielder Jahmai Jones.
Seattle Mariners outfielder Rob Refsnyder, who was born in Korea however was adopted by an American household as an toddler, is one other candidate.
O’Brien was an eighth-round choose by the Tampa Bay Rays within the 2017 draft however made his massive league debut with the Cincinnati Reds in 2021 following a commerce within the earlier 12 months.
The Reds shipped him to the Mariners in April 2022, and O’Brien made one look with that membership.
He joined the Cardinals in November 2023 and loved his finest massive league marketing campaign in 2025, when he pitched to a 2.06 ERA over profession highs of 42 video games and 48 innings, together with a 3-1 file and 6 saves.
He struck out 45 and walked 22. Per Baseball Savant, O’Brien threw his sinker over 48 p.c of the time and slider about 30 p.c of the time in 2025. The precise-hander averaged 98 mph along with his sinker and held opponents to a .228 batting common. O’Brien featured the curveball about 21 p.c of the time final 12 months, and opposing batters solely hit .059 off that pitch.
The ultimate WBC roster is due Feb. 3.
Korea didn’t get out of the primary spherical at every of the previous three WBCs after reaching the semifinals on the inaugural version in 2006 and shedding to Japan within the ultimate in 2009.
Ryu took some 30 gamers, most of them from the Korea Baseball Group, to Saipan to open a preliminary coaching camp in Saipan on Jan. 9, and they’re scheduled to return residence in two teams, Tuesday and Wednesday. The subsequent coaching camp with the ultimate WBC roster will likely be in Okinawa, Japan, beginning Feb. 15.
It wasn’t instantly clear if O’Brien and different gamers based mostly within the majors will be capable of be part of the Okinawa camp, which is able to coincide with the beginning of their massive league golf equipment’ spring coaching, or if they’ll journey to Japan in early March simply earlier than the event.
