Brock Dykxhoorn has had a long winding baseball journey. “Looking back now, it’s my 13th professional season. I had five with the Astros, in the minor leagues, and one in Korea. Now, this is my seventh in Taiwan. So, it’s been a wild ride, and it’s taken me places I never would have guessed before,” said Dykxhoorn, a native of Goderich. A baseball journey that started in Goderich and landed him in Taiwan will now take the 31-year-old Dykxhoorn to the World Baseball Classic (WBC). Dykxhoorn, a right-handed starting pitcher, was just named to Team Canada as a last-minute replacement for fellow Canuck, Carter Loewen. “I was a little bummed earlier the winter when my name wasn’t called on the first roster. So, I kind of just put my head down and kept doing my thing. And I’m just super grateful for this last-minute opportunity,” he said. The six foot nine-inch tall Dykxhoorn has made himself a household name in Taiwan, with six stellar seasons with the Uni-President Lions, winning the Chinese Professional Baseball League championship in 2020. But in a week from now, as he prepares for the WBC, he’ll get his first chance to pitch against actual Major Leaguers in an exhibition game against the Toronto Blue Jays. “I never got to play in the big leagues. I got to Triple-A, one level down. But this would be my chance to play against the Jays. Play against the big-league guys. So, I’m excited for that,” he says. The real competition begins March 7, 2026, when Team Canada kicks off its World Baseball Classic tournament against Colombia. Dykxhoorn, who comes back to Goderich at least once a year, says he’s stoked to pull on the Team Canada jersey once again. “I had the pleasure of playing on the Pan-Am teams in 2015, and we actually took down the United States in the finals of that tournament, and that’s one of the coolest experiences I’ve had in my career. There’s nothing like it. Nothing. Nothing beats that. Nothing tops that. And the World Baseball Classic is something I haven’t been able to do yet, and that’s kind of the pinnacle of international baseball,” says Dykxhoorn.
