The 23-year-old is hoping to help his mother’s country get to the 2026 World Baseball Classic at March’s qualifier event.
Agassi” is a name that is synonymous with tennis success. Jaden Agassi is hoping to make it associated with success in baseball as well.
The 23-year-old son of tennis superstars Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf is set to make his international debut at the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers in Tucson, Arizona which begin on 2 March.
Agassi was born in Las Vegas, but will represent his mother’s birth country Germany at the qualifier event.
Graf won gold for West Germany in women’s singles at the 1988 Olympic Games, while Andre Agassi brought gold to USA at Atlanta 1996. The two tennis legends have a total of 30 Grand Slam wins between them.
Their son Jaden Agassi opted to practise baseball instead of tennis, however. He pitched in high school and further honed his pitching skills at the University of Southern California (USC) from 2021 to 2023.
The right-hander went on to pitch for the Santa Barbara Foresters in the California Collegiate League and had a breakout run with the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the MLB Draft League were he posted a 2.96 ERA and 9.2 K/9 in 2024. Jaden Agassi went undrafted in the MLB Draft in both 2023 and 2024.
Four nations – Germany, Brazil, Colombia, and the People’s Republic of China – will compete at the Tucson World Baseball Classic Qualifiers for a chance to be one of the 20 teams who take part in the main World Baseball Classic tournament in 2026. Two teams from the qualifier will secure spots.
Germany went 1-2 at the 2022 edition of the WBC Qualifiers and did not qualify for the main tournament in 2023.