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

It was Jack Ohman Anxiety last spring. Not because he was a freshman navigating his first collegiate baseball season. Not that his dominance — and string of scoreless innings — was making national headlines. Not because his classes at Yale were overwhelming.

It was because his phone was exploding. Without stopping.

Branded college programs, realizing that the 6-foot right-hander, who had barely played in high school, was the real deal, were trying to convince him to transfer, with promises that it was the right place for his development and his bank account. Agents, seeing dollar signs, are hungry to represent a pitcher who has broken onto the national scene possessing a mid-90s fastball with elite carry. Friends and family were constantly reaching out to him to ask if — and where — he was moving.

Ohman admitted he considered leaving the Ivy League to attend a Power 4 school. And who could blame him? The facilities to improve his skill set there are luxurious. Exposure to reach professionals is brighter. The money – unlocked by recent developments in players cashing in on their name, image and likeness – is tempting..

As rules have been relaxed in recent years, the transfer portal has made player movement more common and ethics have become optional. When Ohman became a prime target for Best Programs, the attack became so severe that his father, Will, considered changing Jack’s phone number.

“The hype was unbelievable,” said Will Ohman, a former major league left-hander who pitched in 483 games over 10 seasons.

But Jack Ohman did not switch phone numbers, nor did he transfer. He informed his coaches last spring, in the midst of 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 led me to make my decision was having a great group of guys that I’m very attached to. It’s a loyalty thing. I think that’s kind of a forgotten train, in college sports. You don’t see it very often. But I think it’s huge.”

Ohman finished the season with a 1.34 ERA, the highest in the country, across 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 an All-America nod since Ryan Lavarnway, a future big-league outfielder, in 2007 — while jumping from unknown to potential first-round pick in the 2027 Major League Baseball draft.

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

“My coach attacked me,” Uman, 20, said. “I made it. I became a great pitcher. It would be disrespectful if I upped and left after one year and threw it all to the wayside because they took a risk in drafting me. And I’m glad the risk paid off.”

Usman was about to do so Exclusively a position player at Brophy College Prep in Phoenix. He was a utility guy and hit nearly .400 as the team’s leadoff hitter in his first season. He served as a starting shortstop and closer, hitting 18 innings as a junior and 25 innings in his senior season. He showed flashes on the mound but lacked consistency. However, his father believed he would go further as a pitcher.

“It was very clear to me that the ceiling was much higher as a pitcher,” Will Ohman said. “There’s a lot of college players that are 6 feet tall and 170 pounds. You have to look for separators. His arm was the separator.”

Will Ohman, who runs a baseball training facility in Phoenix, sent his son to exhibitions only when he thought he had enough skills to showcase them. So his son attended only two. Yale pitching coach Chris Wojcik, who is also the program’s recruiting coordinator, saw Ohman apply for the first time to one of them — a showcase for academic high achievers in the fall before his senior season.

After barely being drafted, Ohman took two official visits to universities: Seattle University and Yale. He committed to Yale shortly after traveling to Connecticut. Success did not seem imminent.

“When he got to Yale,” Bulldogs coach Brian Hamm said, “he still had a way 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 training in 2024.

He began his delivery with a high leg kick similar to that of former major leaguer Bronson Arroyo which made his delivery difficult to replicate, making his command inconsistent. He didn’t throw enough at-bats, certainly not enough to start games in the Ivy League. His best off-speed pitch was a looping curveball that came out of his hand for hitters to recognize and crush—on the rare occasion it found the strike zone. Hamm broke fall practice and planned to use Auman as an outfielder and second baseman.

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

“The first pitch he threw in the live indoor sessions in January was 96 mph,” Wojcik said. “And he was 91 or 92 in the fall. I remember going up to our hitting coach and saying, ‘Hey, come over here.’ After that, I sat down with the coaching staff and said, ‘Hey, Jack’s not hitting anymore.’ And he would pitch for us now.

Ohmann eliminated the leg kick, creating a tighter delivery that was easier to replicate. 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 his show. Wojick wanted him to try the slider. So, in early February, with the season opener looming, Wojcik Uman sat down and gave him an ultimatum: Listen to me and start on the weekend or stay the course and make a fifth round of midweek games that don’t matter.

“It was like, ‘You’re going to do rubbish roles, period,'” Auman said. “Like, ‘You’re bad and we have to cast you and we’.” He owns To develop you. But, yes, you will be doing rubbish roles. He was trying to light a fire under me and I appreciated that. “It clearly worked.”

Two days later, Ohman, whose feel for the game as the son of a former major league player is drawing rave reviews, learned a new slider in 10 minutes, Wojcik said. The first he threw during live batting practice was clubbed for a home run. But Ohman made a slight adjustment and struck out the next five batters. He took the field in his first career outing, facing Queen’s University, and had four hits over 2⅓ innings.

The pitch was different enough from the fastball he hit to miss, but Ohman thought there was more room for improvement. So he changed his grip a bit again for his next appearance. The plan was to get out of the bullpen again. But when Yale’s scheduled starter in the final series against The Citadel was too ill to play, Wojick told Ohman that morning he was getting the ball rolling.

“My coach came up to me and said, ‘Hey, just give me one run,'” Auman recalled. “Then we will reevaluate. “We’re using you as an opener.”

The promotion plan for the day – and the season – quickly changed. Ohman allowed one hit, walked two and struck out five over five scoreless frames. He earned a rotation spot with the start and did not slow down. Behind a new slider and a mid-90s fastball, which, according to Wojick, featured an average of 22 inches of induced vertical break — comparable to the width of New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole — Auman didn’t give up a run through his first 35⅓ innings.

“He looked like Wally Pipp the guy who was our starter,” Wojcik said. “Then we went from there.”

Othman made it The second career starter is in Yale’s final series at Rice, where his twin sister Annabelle teaches physics. With his family in the stands, Ohman shut down the Owls. He racked up three unearned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts across seven innings in Yale’s sweeping win.

“It was his big game in the scene,” Will Ohman said. “It was a family reunion. We were sitting in the stands and then he left. And I thought to myself: ‘Oh my God.’ What you saw on TV, you now see live. I can confirm that. “Things are going well.”

Ohman surrendered his first out in his sixth start—and seventh appearance—against the Browns to snap his streak of 35⅓ scoreless innings to start his career. By then he had emerged onto the national scene.

“Every top 25 team was calling me and asking if they were going to get in the portal,” Brophy Prep head baseball coach Josh Garcia said.

Calls and messages flooded Uman’s phone. Wojcik said SEC coaches reached out to them through burners. The agents tried to convince him to enter the portal with them as his representative. The spotlight quickly turned from flattering to distracting.

“It’s pretty much gotten out of control,” Wojcik said. “I would tell you there was a team in the Big 12 that was the most aggressive, to the point where they offered his high school coach money to get him into the transfer portal, and then they offered him a job on their staff if they got him to transfer to that school, plus there was no money.”

Ohman said he made his decision to stay before the end of the season. Awards quickly followed. He was named Ivy League Pitcher of the Year, Rookie of the Year, a Freshman All-American and a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist. When the dust settled, he was a top-10 pick on Baseball America’s 2027 MLB Draft list.

“I’m so proud of him,” Will Ohman said. “He’s got some really interesting things going on, and we’ll find out over time whether they play or not.”

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

For now, he’s focused on promoting. While he may hit or enter games as a defensive replacement, most of his work will continue on the mound. Yale and Columbia are the favorites to win the Ivy League. Individual expectations are high for Ohman as well. He was a consensus preseason All-American and made the preseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award. He plans to change the kick, a pitch he added to his arsenal last season, more often. Wojick described the stadium as a “game-changer.”

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

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