[Official] The injured Korea of the Korean national team, 'calf injury' O'Brien OUT → Doosan Closer Kim Taek-yeon IN

*This content was translated by AI.

In the end, "Korean pitcher" Riley O'Brien (31, St. Louis Cardinals) was eventually eliminated from the World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team due to a calf injury.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said on the morning of the 19th, "The Korea Power Reinforcement Committee confirmed Doosan's Kim Taek-yeon as a replacement for Riley O'Brien of the St. Louis Cardinals, who has become difficult to participate in the WBC due to injuries, and asked the WBC organizing committee to approve the replacement of players."

Earlier on the 18th (Korea time), Daniel Guerrero, a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, said on his personal social network service (SNS), "O'Brien is currently feeling pain in his calf (Riley O'Brien is dealing with some 'soreness' in his calf."

Another media outlet, the St. Louis reporter for Belleville News-Democrat, also said on social media on the same day, "O'Brien is suffering from calf pain. The club is trying to figure out the condition," he said.

According to MLB.com , the official website of the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB), O'Brien said on the same day, "I felt better today than yesterday. "It felt better today than it did today, Hopefully it's nothing too long-term."

O'Brien is a Korean-American born to an American father and a Korean mother. He also has a Korean name (middle name) called "Junyoung." The WBC tournament is not a nationality like the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics, but if your parents or grandparents are born in Korea, you can participate as a Korean national team player. O'Brien decided to play in the Korean WBC national team for the first time through this competition.

Coach Ryu Ji-hyun met with reporters last month before heading to Saipan, the first camp site of the WBC, and said, "As it is known outside, (Lily) O'Brien and (Jermai) Jones have been very active when they communicated since last year, and they still do. If there are no major problems, I expect to join," he said. In the end, it was also included in the final list of WBC announced on the 6th and received expectations from Korean fans.

However, an unexpected injury eventually prevented him from wearing the national flag. With O'Brien's failure to join the team, Korea is expected to play on the WBC stage with only three Korean players, including Shay Witcombe (Houston Astros), Dane Dunning (Atlanta), and Jamai Jones (Detroit Tigers).

The Korean national team continues to groan at the bad news of injuries. Kim Ha-sung and Song Sung-moon (San Diego Padres) failed to play in the WBC due to injuries early on. In addition, "Veteran catcher" Choi Jae-hoon (Hanwha) left due to injury following "first starter ace" Moon Dong-joo, who had been to Saipan's first camp, and recently, even Won Tae-in was diagnosed with a first-stage elbow flexor injury, and he was confirmed to be eliminated from the national team. And this time, even O'Brien was knocked out with injuries.

Kim Taek-yeon, who joined the national team in place of O'Brien, took the mound in 64 games in the 2025 season and marked a 3.53 ERA with 24 saves. In a total of 66 1/3 innings, he recorded 47 hits (six home runs), 31 walks, 79 strikeouts, 31 runs (26 earned), 9 blon saves, 1.18 on-base allowed per inning (WHIP) and 0.196 hit rate.

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*This content was translated by AI.