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Jorge Castillo
JACK OHMAN WAS anxious last spring. Not because he was a freshman navigating his first collegiate baseball season. Not because his dominance — and scoreless innings streak — was making national headlines. Not because his classes at Yale were overwhelming.
It was because his phone was blowing up. Nonstop.
Name-brand college programs, realizing the 6-foot right-hander, who barely pitched in 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, thirsted to represent the pitcher who had crashed on the national scene possessing a mid-90s fastball with elite carry. Friends and family constantly pinged him to ask if — and where — he was going to transfer.
Ohman admitted he considered leaving the Ivy League for a Power 4 school. And who would blame him? The facilities to improve his skill set there are palatial. The exposure to reach the pros is brighter. The money — unlocked by recent advances in players capitalizing on their name, image and likeness — is tempting.
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Hardly recruited, Ohman made two official visits to schools: Seattle University and Yale. He committed to Yale soon after traveling to Connecticut. Success did not appear 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 Wojick, was the worst pitcher on the Bulldogs’ roster during fall workouts in 2024.
His delivery began with a high leg kick resembling former major leaguer Bronson Arroyo that made repeating his delivery difficult, rendering his command inconsistent. He 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 popped out of his hand for hitters to recognize and crush — on the rare occasion it found the strike zone. Hamm broke fall workouts planning on using Ohman as an outfielder and second baseman.
Then Ohman returned to campus after winter break as a different pitcher.
«The first pitch he threw in live indoor sessions in January was 96 [mph],» Wojick said. «And he was like 91, 92 in the fall. I remember going to our hitting coach, like, ‘Hey come here.’ After that, I sat down with the coaching staff and was like, ‘Hey, Jack’s no longer hitting. He’s going to pitch for us now.’
Ohman eliminated the leg kick, creating a more compact delivery that was easier to repeat. He was stronger from the regular workouts that come with being a Division I athlete. But his curveball was still a problem. He wanted to continue featuring it. Wojick wanted him to try a slider. So in early February, with the season opener around the corner, Wojick sat Ohman down and gave him an ultimatum: Listen to me and become a weekend starter or stay on this path and pitch the fifth inning of inconsequential midweek games.
New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole’s offering — Ohman didn’t surrender a run over his first 35⅓ innings.
«He kind of Wally Pipp’d the guy that was our starter,» Wojick said. «And then we went from there.»
OHMAN MADE HIS second career start in Yale’s series finale at Rice, where his twin sister Annabel studies physics. With his family in the stands, Ohman shut down the Owls. He yielded three unearned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts across seven innings in Yale’s series-sweeping win.
«It was his big I’m-on-the-scene game,» Will Ohman said. «It was a family reunion. We’re sitting in the stands and he just goes off. And I was like, ‘Oh, my. What I’ve seen on TV, I have seen now live. I can confirm it. Things are going well.'»
Ohman surrendered his first earned run in his sixth start — and seventh appearance — against Brown to snap his streak of 35⅓ scoreless innings to begin his career. By then he had sprung into national prominence.
«Every team in the top 25 was calling me asking if he’s going to go into the portal,» Brophy Prep head baseball coach Josh Garcia said.
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The calls and messages flooded Ohman’s phone. SEC coaches, Wojick said, reached out from burners. Agents attempted to persuade him to hop into the portal with them as his representation. The spotlight quickly sprouted from flattering to distracting.
«It was actually getting pretty out of control,» Wojick said. «I would tell you there’s a Big 12 team that was the most aggressive, to the point where they offered his high school coach money to get him into the transfer portal, then offered him a job on their staff if he got him to transfer to that school, plus NIL money.»
Ohman said he made his decision to stay before the end of the season. The accolades soon followed. He was named the Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, the Perfect Game Freshman Pitcher of the Year, a freshman All-American and a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. When the dust settled, 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 stuff, and we’re going to find out over time if it plays.»
An economics major, Ohman wants to work in baseball when his playing career is over, whenever that is, and hopes to one day become an MLB general manager. To put him on track, he was connected with Theo Epstein, a Yale alum and the architect of two curse-breaking World Series titles in Boston and Chicago, and Ohman has picked his brain.
For now, he’s focused on pitching. While he might pinch hit or enter games as a defensive replacement, most of his work will continue to be on the mound. Yale and Columbia are the favorites to win the Ivy League. Individual expectations are high for Ohman too. He was a consensus preseason All-American and landed on the Golden Spikes Award preseason watch list. He plans on throwing a kick change, a pitch he added to his arsenal last season, more often. Wojick called the pitch «a game changer.»
Last week’s returns were promising. On Friday, he’ll pitch at Pepperdine, his father’s alma mater, in front of his family again. And he’ll do it in a Yale uniform.
«My goal for this season is to prove that I developed last year as a pitcher,» Ohman said. «I’m so much better. I’m a lot better pitcher now than I was a year ago — as I should be.»
