Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf's son will pursue baseball dream with Team Germany: report

The World Baseball Classic is a celebration of the global game, a chance for players from around the world to represent their home country on the diamond once every three or four years.

Or, in the case of Jaden Agassi, it's a chance to represent his mother's home country in a sport tennis fans would be surprised to learn he plays.

The son of Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, Jaden Agassi was a pitcher for the University of Southern California who was undrafted after his junior year and still has a year of college eligibility remaining at age 23.

Last year, Agassi pitched for the Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the MLB Draft League, a pro-am league for undrafted seniors and draft-eligible juniors. He went 1-1 with a 2.96 ERA in six starts, striking out 28 batters in 27.1 innings.

Agassi's journey to this point in his baseball career has included Tommy John surgery, a year lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the relative anonymity offered by a sport in which no one expected him to make a name for himself.

“You know, as a really young kid you’re kind of naive and blind to things like that,” Agassi said of his parents’ international fame in a 2024 interview with the Tribune Chronicle. “To me, they were just mom and dad. They did a wonderful job of separating their public life from who they are at home.”

Germany is attempting to qualify for the 2025 WBC at a qualifying tournament in Tucson, Ariz., in March. Jaden Agassi is eligible for their roster by virtue of his mother's lineage. Steffi Graf won gold in women's singles for West Germany at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

Graf and Andre Agassi combined for 30 grand slams in their career. As MLB.com cleverly notes, Jaden Agassi "wants to avoid them at all costs."

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Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf's son to pursue athletic dream with Team Germany—in baseball

By J.P. Hoornstra | Feb 13, 2025