Mariners Ace Bryan Woo reveals why he'll skip the World Baseball Classic
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Seattle Mariners pitcher Bryan Woo experienced a bittersweet career year in 2025, where there were lots of highs, but some pretty low lows. Especially at the end of the season, when the 15-game winner was forced to shut things down in September and was held to just two relief appearances in the postseason. So, while individually, he had a banner season, he wasn't able to help his team when the season was on the line. That's a problem the 26-year-old righthander is looking to remedy this Spring.
Woo battled inflammation in his pectoral muscle for most of the final month of the regular season, and he's hoping a healthy 2026 not only adds his name to the game's elite starters but also helps his squad win the franchise's first-ever World Series. That's why, to spare the extra innings on his arm, he decided not to represent China or America in this year's World Baseball Classic.
“I would have loved to do it,” Woo said, according to MLB.com's Daniel Kramer. “But I just wanted to be smart about mostly the workload jump from ’24 to ’25. You add early games, early preparation, early high-stress innings, my goal is to be throwing 200-plus innings and make all my starts. Like, that’s a big jump to do this year.
“As much as I’d love to be on that team, in that locker room, I’m just trying to be smart about it.”
Bryan Woo set a goal of 200 Innings Pitched in 2026
In 2025, Woo went 15–7 with a 2.98 ERA and 198 strikeouts, finishing fifth in AL Cy Young voting and being selected to his first All-Star team. Due to the pectoral injury, however, he would throw just 186.1 innings, a total he wants to improve on in 2026. He told Kramer that his goal for the upcoming season was to break the 200-inning mark.
Bryan Woo revealed today that he turned down an invitation to the World Baseball Classic, using the phrase "be smart" three times when outlining why.
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) February 13, 2026
“As much as I'd love to be on that team, in that locker room, I'm just trying to be smart about it.”https://t.co/HJgmnwOy5a
With a full, healthy season, he's likely to have a career year once again, considering how well the team is currently constituted. The Mariners are poised for the pennant, and Bryan Woo is the pitcher they will need to lead them there.
But he can't do that if he isn't healthy. And for the young hurler, the chance at a World Series ring looms much larger than the World Baseball Classic right now.
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Ryan K Boman is a freelance writer and the author of the 2023 book, Pop Music & Peanut Butter: A Collection of Essays Looking at Life with Love & Laughter. His previous work has appeared at MSN, Heavy, the Miami Herald, Screen Rant, FanSided, and Yardbarker. Follow him on X @RyanKBoman