Doosan Bears pitcher Cole Irvin poses in front of a team bus at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, following an interview with Yonhap News Agency on March 4, 2025. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
INCHEON, March 5 (Korea Bizwire) — Born and raised in California, left-handed pitcher Cole Irvin played college ball at the University of Oregon, and went on to pitch for major league clubs in Philadelphia, Oakland, Baltimore and Minneapolis. He also made minor league stops in the states of Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Now 31 years old with 134 big league games under his belt, Irvin has chosen to take his talent to South Korea. He signed a one-year, US$1 million contract with the Seoul-based Doosan Bears of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in November last year, the first of three new foreign players that the Bears acquired during the offseason.
South Korea is, in Irvin’s own words, “the farthest I’ve been away from home, ever.” The physical distance aside, though, Irvin had known “quite a bit” about the KBO through friend and former Lotte Giants pitcher Dan Straily, who plied his trade here from 2020 to 2023, and his ex-big league teammate and future KBO opponent Matt Davidson, who has been with the NC Dinos since last year.
That familiarity made the move easy for Irvin, who came here hoping to turn his career around.
“The decision to play here wasn’t a matter of if. It was more of a matter of, when will that be? Will it be towards the end of my career? Or will it be now?” Irvin told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, after arriving back from spring training in Japan. “And here we are. It’s a turning point here. I need to make some adjustments on my end to be a little better. And I’m looking forward to the challenge that the KBO brings.”
Also, Irvin was sold by “an incredible sales pitch” from the Bears in their bidding war against other KBO teams for Irvin’s services.
“They sold me on the ballpark, and they sold me on the opportunity that they’ve provided other big leaguers,” Irvin said. “And so it’s certainly exciting to be here, and I’m so happy I made the choice I did.”
Irvin admitted to getting “a little nervous” about continuing his career in a new country and a new league. And the lengthy training camp that stretched from late January to early March in two countries — the Bears had the first phase of camp in Australia — required some adjustments well before the start of the season. But Irvin took it all in stride.
“There’s a lot of changes, but at the end of the day, it’s 60 feet, six inches,” Irvin said, referring to the distance between the mound and home plate. “Throwing a baseball is what I do for a living, and I love doing it.”
He will bank on his big league experience to find his footing in South Korea. He made 62 starts combined for the Oakland Athletics in 2021 and 2022. Then in the early part of the 2024 season with the Baltimore Orioles, Irvin enjoyed the best five-start stretch of his career, going 4-0 with a 1.19 ERA across 30 1/3 innings while holding the opponents to a .193/.221/.284 line.
“There was a point last season where I was one of the best starting pitchers in Major League Baseball,” he said. “So I know I got the tools and the stuff. I want to show it every month that I’m out here.”
Irvin wasn’t able to sustain that level of success, and the Orioles designated him for assignment in September, with the Minnesota Twins later claiming him off waivers.
Perhaps a strong season in the KBO could see Irvin back in the majors in 2026. He wouldn’t be the only one to take the route back to the bigs, but Irvin insisted he wasn’t yet ready to look that far down the road.
“I’m never going to close the door on anything. But I’ve really enjoyed the team so far, and we haven’t even played game one yet. So why even think about that conversation?” Irvin said. “I think it’s about getting the job done with the group of guys we have here. Of course, I would love to return to the major leagues, but it’s about getting the job done on Day 1. And so I’m 100 percent a Doosan Bear, and when those conversations at the end of the season happen, they’ll happen. But I got to play baseball first before those conversations do (take place).”
For Irvin, a big part of being on the Bears is to help out younger teammates with his experience and wisdom.
“I’ve had a lot of experience getting some of the best in the world out. Hopefully, I can help bring a couple things to the young guys of this ball club,” he said. “It’s a little bit of a culture thing where they’re a little nervous to talk to an older player. But I’ve encouraged a lot of conversations, and we’ve had a lot of good ones so far this camp. And so just telling guys, ‘Hey, we’re a family, and the only way we can go to where we want to go is by trying to get better and pushing each other and learning how to get better.’”
(Yonhap)
