Tigers ace Oller credits humility for success in 1st KBO season
Kia Tigers starter Adam Oller pitches against the KT Wiz during a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, on June 19, 2025. Yonhap
About three months into his Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season, Kia Tigers right-hander Adam Oller finds himself among the league leaders in wins, ERA, strikeouts, innings pitched and quality starts. Few would bat an eye if Oller, with an 8-3 record, a 3.03 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 95 innings across 16 starts, strutted around feeling great about himself.
But the 30-year-old American pitcher wants to stay humble, the way he has been since the start of his KBO career, because he knows that baseball is, well, a humbling game.
"I like to stay humble because you get a little egotistical and that's usually when things backfire on you," Oller told Yonhap News Agency in an interview at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Thursday, a day after he held the Kiwoom Heroes to two runs on five hits in six frames in a 6-3 victory. "I like to stay humble just because these guys are good. I've played against some really good veteran Korean players and really good young Korean players that are impressive."
Oller, who made 36 appearances in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 2022 to 2024, said he didn't want to look down on KBO hitters just because he had some big league experience. After speaking to others who had previously played in the KBO or are currently playing here, Oller learned what kind of mindset can hurt new foreign players.
"A lot of the ones that struggle (in the KBO) have the mindset of, 'I pitched in MLB, it's the highest stage in the world, I can come here and I'm going to be fine.' And that's not always the case," Oller said. "So I did not take that approach. I knew that just because I pitched in MLB doesn't mean that I'm guaranteed success in this league. I had the mindset of, 'I can't take it lightly,' and it has helped."
After going through "a little bit of a learning curve" at the start of the season, Oller said he has started to figure out how to best handle KBO hitters.
"One thing that's been working well has been attacking and getting ahead early," he said. "I know that works across the board any league you're in, but here specifically, it really helps because while these guys may not have as much power as MLB players do, their bat-to-ball skills are on par with a lot of them. They'll just sit there and foul stuff off and then they're okay with just blooping a single and then stealing second and then getting in from there.
"If you try to nitpick and be too fine on things, that's where your pitch count starts to get through the roof," Oller added. "I think early on in the season, I was trying to chase strikeouts. Now, it's just like, 'Okay, I'll let you hit it.' Just let the defense play and try to limit the pitch count by doing that."
Oller said he also enjoys the challenge of facing the same teams multiple times in a short span, with there being just nine other opponents in the KBO. So far this year, Oller has faced the Heroes, the Hanwha Eagles and the KT Wiz three times each already.
He said one difficult aspect of facing the same lineup over and over again is he has to keep adjusting.
"By the third or fourth time you face a guy, he's now had 10 plus at-bats off of you. And while he may be 1-for-10, you can't just keep going to the same location and you can't keep going to the same pitch," he said. "But it's cool because it makes you have to think outside the box on how you're going to approach a specific guy."
On the other hand, there may be instances where Oller realizes that an opponent simply cannot handle a certain pitch. In that scenario, he said he can keep attacking that hitter with the same weapon.
"Obviously, the more times a guy sees you and the more times the team sees you, the more scouting reports they get on you. It makes it a little more difficult every time you have to face them, especially if they're a hot team," he said. "But it's fun because I have to dig into the bag and try to figure out how to differently approach these guys and keep them on their toes."
Oller said going through this process has helped his career as a whole, too.
"It's definitely taught me a new way of approaching things," he said. "It's been a lot of fun doing it because I think pitching over here has made me a better pitcher."
jeeho@yna.co.kr
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