College baseball 2026: Why Jack Ohman chose to stay at Yale

jack ohman was Concerned last spring. Not because he was a rookie in his first collegiate baseball season. Not because his dominance – and string of scoreless innings – were making national headlines. Not because his classes at Yale were heavy.

The reason for this was that his phone was getting damaged. Without stopping.

Name-brand college programs, realizing that the 6-foot right hander who had barely gotten out of high school was the real deal, were trying to convince him to transfer, with promises that they were the right place for his development and bank account. Agents, seeing dollar signs, became thirsty to represent the pitcher who had crashed onto the national scene in the mid-90s by carrying a fastball with elite carries. Friends and family were constantly pinging him to ask if – and where – he was going to transfer.

Ohman admitted that he considered leaving the Ivy League for a Power 4 school. And who would blame him? The facilities there to improve their skills are grand. The risk of reaching out to professionals is bright. The money gained from the recent progress of players cashing in on their name, image and likeness is lucrative.

With the relaxation of rules in recent years, transfer portals have made the movement of players far more common and morality optional. As Ohman became a top target for best programs, the attacks became so intense that his father Will considered changing Jack’s phone number.

“The noise was unbelievable,” said former major league left-hander Will Ohman, who made 483 relief appearances over 10 seasons.

But Jack Ohman didn’t change phone numbers – and he didn’t even transfer. He informed his coaches last spring, amid one of the greatest freshman seasons in NCAA history, that he was staying in New Haven.

“I talked to a lot of people about it because I didn’t know exactly what to do,” Ohman said. “But I think what drove my decision was that it was a great group of guys that I’m very close with. It’s a loyalty thing. I think that’s a forgotten quality in college sports. You don’t see that often. But I think it’s huge.”

Ohman finished the season with a 1.34 ERA, tops in the nation, in 73⅔ innings, as Yale went 31–14 and won the Ivy League regular season title. He was named a second-team All-American – the first Yale baseball player to earn All-America nods since future big league catcher Ryan Laverne in 2007 – while vaulting from unknown to potential first-round pick in Major League Baseball’s 2027 draft.

Last Friday, he began his sophomore campaign by holding Bethune-Cookman to one earned run in five innings and striking out 10 in Yale’s season-opening loss, putting the Ivy League — and the country — on notice again.

“My coaches took a flyer on me,” said Ohman, 20. “It happened to work out. I became a great pitcher. It would be a little disrespectful if I left after one year and put it all aside because they took a risk in recruiting me. And I’m glad that risk paid off.”

Ohman was almost Featured a position player at Brophy College Prep in Phoenix. He was a utility hitter and batted nearly .400 as the team’s leadoff hitter in his senior season. He highlighted as a spot starter and closer, recording 18 innings as a junior and 25 innings in his senior season. He showed flashes on the mound but lacked consistency. And yet his father was confident that he would go the farthest as a pitcher.

Will Ohman said, “It was very clear to me that the ceiling was as high as a pitcher.” “There are a lot of 6-foot, 170-pound college players. You have to find the separator. His arm was his separator.”

Will Ohman, who runs a baseball training facility in Phoenix, did not send his son to the showcase until he was confident he had enough skills to perform. So his son participated in only two. Yale pitching coach Chris Wojcik, who is also the program’s recruiting coordinator, first saw Ohman pitch in one of those games – a showcase for the academic standout before his senior season.

Hardly recruited, Ohman took two official visits to schools: Seattle University and Yale. He committed to Yale shortly after his visit to Connecticut. Success did not seem imminent.

“When he arrived at Yale,” Bulldogs head coach Brian Hamm said, “he still had a ways to go in terms of being able to pitch at the college level, let alone make an impact.”

Ohman, according to Wojcik, was the worst pitcher on the Bulldogs roster during fall workouts in 2024.

His delivery began with a high leg kick similar to that of former major leaguer Bronson Arroyo, making his delivery difficult to replicate, making his command inconsistent. She didn’t throw enough strikes, certainly not enough to start games in the Ivy League. His best off-speed pitch was a loopy curveball that would slip out of his hand to identify and crush hitters – on the rare occasion it would find the strike zone.

Ohman then returned to campus after winter break as a different pitcher.

“The first pitch he threw in a live indoor session in January was 96 [mph],” Wojcik said. “And that was in the fall of like ’91, ’92. I remember going up to my hitting coach, like, ‘Hey come over here.’ After that, I sat down with the coaching staff and said, ‘Hey, Jack’s not hitting anymore. He’s going to pitch for us now.

Ohman eliminated the leg kick, leading to a more compact delivery that was easier to repeat. He was strong from the regular workouts that come with being a Division I athlete. But his curveball was still a problem. He wanted to continue to display it. Wojcik wanted him to try a slider. So in early February, as the start of the season neared, Wojcik sat down Ohman and gave him an ultimatum: Listen to me and be a weekend starter or stay on this path and pitch the fifth inning of irrelevant midweek games.

“It was like, ‘You’re going to throw a crappy inning,'” Ohman said. “Like, ‘You’re worthless and we have to pitch you and us to pass To make you grow. But, yes, you are going to play useless innings. He was trying to light a fire under me and I appreciate that. Obviously, it worked.”

Two days later, Wojcik said, Ohman, whose feel for the game draws rave reviews as the son of a former major league player, learned a new slider in 10 minutes. The first throw he made during live batting practice was clubbed for a home run. But Ohman made a slight adjustment and struck out the next five batters. He pitched for the first time in his career in relief against Queens University and had four strikeouts in 2⅓ innings.

The pitch was different enough from his fastball to cause a miss, but Ohman thought there was room for improvement. So he changed the grip slightly again for his next appearance. The plan was for him to come out of the bullpen again. But when Yale’s scheduled starter for the series finale against The Citadel was too poor to pitch, Wojcik told Ohman that morning that he was getting the ball.

“My coach came to me and said, ‘Hey, just give me one inning,'” Ohman recalled. “Then we will reevaluate. We are using you as an opening batsman.

The pitching plan for that day – and the season – quickly changed. Ohman allowed one hit, walked two and struck out five over five scoreless frames. He earned a starting rotation spot right away and hasn’t slowed down. The new slider and mid-90s fastball, according to Wojcik, have an average of 22 inches of induced vertical break — comparable. New York Yankees ace gerrit coleOffering – Ohman did not concede a single run in his first 35⅓ innings.

“He picked a guy like Wally Pipp who was our starter,” Wojcik said. “And then we went from there.”

Ohman made his A second career start came in Yale’s series finale at Rice, where his twin sister Annabel studies physics. With his family in the stands, Ohman shut out the Owls. He gave up three unearned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts in seven innings in Yale’s series-sweeping victory.

“That was his big on-the-scene game,” Will Ohman said. “It was a family reunion. We were sitting in the stands and he walked over. And I said, ‘Oh my God. What I’ve seen on TV, I’ve now seen live. I can confirm that. Things are going well.'”

Ohman surrendered his first earned run in his sixth start and seventh appearance against the Browns to break his streak of 35⅓ scoreless innings to begin his career. By then he had gained fame at the national level.

“Every team in the top 25 was calling me asking if he was going to go into the portal,” said Brophy Prep head baseball coach Josh Garcia.

Ohman’s phone was flooded with calls and messages. SEC coaches, Wojcik said, arrived off the burner. The agents attempted to convince him to come to the portal as their representation. The headlines quickly turned from flattering to distracting.

“It was really getting pretty out of control,” Wojcik said. “I will tell you there is one Big 12 team that was the most aggressive, to the extent that they offered their high school coach money to get him into the transfer portal, then offered him a job on their staff if he would get him to transfer to that school, plus zero down payment.”

Öhman said he had decided to stay before the end of the season. Soon compliments started pouring in. He was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, Perfect Game Freshman Pitcher of the Year, Freshman All-American, and Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. When matters calmed down, he was in the top 10 of Baseball America’s 2027 MLB draft board.

“I’m extremely proud of him,” Will Ohman said. “He has some really interesting things, and we’ll find out over time if it works.”

A graduate in economics, Ohman wants to work in baseball when his playing career ends, whenever that happens, and hopes to one day become an MLB general manager. To get him on track, he connected with Theo Epstein, a Yale alumnus and architect of two curse-breaking World Series titles in Boston and Chicago, and Ohman has picked his brain.

For now, his focus is on pitching. Although he may pinch hit or enter games as a defensive replacement, the majority of his work will continue to be on the mound. Yale and Columbia are favorites to win the Ivy League. Personal expectations are also high for Ohman. He was a consensus preseason All-American and appeared on the Golden Spikes Award preseason watch list. He plans to throw the kick change, a pitch he added to his arsenal last season, more often. Wojcik called the pitch a “game changer”.

Last week’s returns were promising. On Friday, he will perform again in front of his family at his father’s alma mater, Pepperdine. And he’ll do it in a Yale uniform.

“My goal for this season is to prove that I have grown as a pitcher over the last year,” Ohman said. “I’m a lot better. I’m a much better pitcher now than I was a year ago – as I should be.”