This year’s World Baseball Classic qualifiers will feature a pitcher with a very famous last name.
Jenna Fink of KVOA in Arizona reported this week that Jaden Agassi is set to pitch for Germany in the WBC qualifiers, which begin this weekend. Agassi is the eldest child (and only son) of tennis icons Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf, who have been married since 2001.
“As a kid, I’d pick up a tennis racket and it was tough for me to keep the ball in the lines,” Jaden was quoted as saying in Fink’s feature. “I just wanted to hit it as far as I could. I have stuck with baseball ever since.
“They’ve been very supportive since the jump,” Jaden added of his parents. “They’re very relaxed. They grew up with harsh parents who pushed them very hard. I think they went the complete opposite route with me. They never miss a game. They love watching but they’re never too hard on me.”
Jaden, 23, stands 6-foot-3 and pitched in college for USC from 2021-23. He has since gone on to pitch for various collegiate summer leagues in California, posting a 3.29 ERA over six total starts last season for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.
Here is a video that Jaden posted to social media last year in which he showed off his fastball.
The WBC qualifiers will feature four teams (Germany, Brazil, China, and Colombia) competing for two open spots in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, which is set to be played in March 2026. Jaden’s parents (including Graf, who is of German descent) won a total of 30 combined Grand Slam singles during their respective tennis careers. Now Jaden, who was already on our radar here at LBS all the way back in 2017, will be looking to find his own success in World Baseball Classic play.
