Brian Hamm, who completed his fourth season as the Yale baseball coach in 2026, has led the Bulldogs to back-to-back regular season league titles and in 2026 added the Ivy League Tournament championship.
Photo courtesy of Yale Athletics
Yale Bulldogs pitcher Jack Ohman (17) pitches against Oregon during an NCAA regional baseball game on Friday, May 29, 2026, in Eugene, Ore. (AP Photo/Mark Ylen)
Mark Ylen/AP Photo/Mark Ylen
Imagine a Yale University baseball team next season with a first-round Major League Baseball draft pick at shortstop, a second-round draft pick at catcher and another potential first rounder on the mound.
While that may seem a bit far-fetched for an Ivy League team to accumulate that kind of talent, it wasn’t too far from becoming a reality.
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Yale baseball coach Brian Hamm and his staff did the hard part. They saw talent in the players before they became superstars and convinced them that the Ivy League would be to further develop their talent and create a lifetime of opportunities after baseball.
Hamm got them to commit to Yale as their college of choice, but ultimately the Bulldogs came up more than $5 million shy of getting two of the three players on campus. It wasn’t a shortfall of NIL money that caused a change of heart but rather a major league dream and a more immediate tangible payday.
Last year, Yale received a commitment from Michael Oliveto, a high school catcher from Long Island, but when the Detroit Tigers drafted him with a first-round compensatory pick and offered him a $2.4 million signing bonus, he seized the opportunity to go pro instead.
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This year a similar scenario played out as Yale commit Elliot Lascelles from Ontario Canada was set to go to Yale, but he has slipped away, as well. According to reports, Lascelles signed a deal with the San Diego Padres, who drafted him in the second round of the 2026 MLB Draft.
Because Lascelles has a Yale education to use as a bargaining chip, he was able to leverage his signing bonus with the Padres from a slot value of $1.5 million to a deal worth more in the $2.8 million range, which is a bonus pool era record for a Canadian high school position player.
Luckily for the Bulldogs, two years ago they signed a player who may turn out to be better than the two that just got away, pitcher Jack Ohman from Arizona. They saw the potential in him, and he was spectacular as a freshman as he finished 8-1, led the nation in ERA at 1.34 and earned All-America honors.
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Ohman’s sophomore season wasn’t quite a dominant, but he was solid as he led the Ivy League in strikeouts (90), earned the Ivy League Tournament Most Outstanding Player award and led the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament with the only back-to-back 30-win seasons in program history.
Also, in three games pitched in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League this summer, he was 1-0 with a 1.93 ERA, 16 strikeouts and only three walks.
For the second year in a row, he also turned down significant NIL and offers from Power 4 schools to return to Yale for his junior year next season, after which he is expected to be a first-round draft pick.
Nonetheless, Hamm feels bittersweet about coming so close to adding high draft picks each of the last two seasons to join Ohman.
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“It would have been enjoyable to have an opportunity to pursue our goal, which is to get to a Super Regional and win it,” Hamm said. “With those guys in the middle of the lineup and the cadre of players that we have returning from the Ivy League Tournament and NCAA Regional, it would have been realistic.
“It is still a good feeling knowing players of that caliber want to come to Yale to play. It lets us know we are on the right guys in the way that we evaluate talent and competitiveness. We have been able to identify talented players with high potential early before others did, and that is one of the big keys in recruiting.”
Coming so close and losing in the end, however, hurts a team like Yale more than most college teams. The prestigious school limits the number of applicants accepted every year, and that means limited spots allotted to athletic teams.
Baseball gets seven spots per year, and when someone like Lascelles or Oliveto turn down their spots the summer before the new school year, it leaves the team short-handed. Applying to a place like Yale is a process that takes time and significant evaluation.
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“What is difficult for many outside the Ivy League to appreciate is that we are not able to backfill a shortstop or a catcher with transfers or even with bringing in a bigger class the following year,” Hamm said. “Not only do we lose Elliot at shortstop or Michael at catcher for the next 3-4 years, but you also lose that spot on your roster for four years.”
Hamm and his staff are not feeling sorry for themselves, however, because there is plenty of talent, an established culture and great momentum within the program.
Seven of the eight position players who started the Ivy League championship game last season are returning, led by captain and left fielder Garrett Larsen.
Ohman, Larsen and center fielder Caden Dossa all gained valuable experience playing in the Cape Cod League this summer while right fielder Chris DiPrima and pitcher Alex Hwang are playing very well for the Bristol Blues in NECBL.
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And while they may have lost Lascelles to the draft, the Bulldogs are bringing in a solid recruiting class led by outfielder Max Prejda from the Czech Republic, who started for his country at the World Baseball Classic.
Hamm said when he started coaching he worked with the MLB Envoy program in England, the Netherlands and Spain helping grow the game abroad to create fan interest and inspire young athletes to play baseball. Since then he has wanted to explore international recruiting and believes he’s found a very good player in Prejda.
“He can hit for power and average from the left side, and he has plus side even at the pro level,” Hamm said. “Like many of our recruits, he fits our system not only because of his skill set but also by the way he plays the game and his style. He is aggressive and versatile.”
Yale expects to contend for championships again during the 2027 season, and Hamm said that despite a couple heartbreaking near misses due to the draft he and his staff will continue being aggressive in recruiting.
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“At the time we first started recruiting them a year and a half or two before signing them, Jack Ohman, Elliot Lascelles and Michael Oliveto weren’t first-rounders,” Hamm said. “We knew they were good and that they would fit and develop well in our program so we pursued them.
“At the end of the day you are always trying to aspire to get the best players you can, and at Yale we are able to attract them. Some of them will definitely choose to come, and some of them have come and helped us elevate our program.”