{"id":612540,"date":"2026-03-08T01:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T01:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/612540\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T01:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T01:51:19","slug":"meet-yales-star-pitcher-who-turned-down-nil-riches-to-remain-in-the-ivy-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/612540\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Yale\u2019s star pitcher who turned down NIL riches to remain in the Ivy League"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of USA vs. Great Britain<\/a> in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.<\/a><\/p>\n

On most Fridays, shortly before Jack Ohman toes the rubber, he\u2019s hunched over a pitching report entrusted only to him. He fills the margins with revisions, then walks the report to Chris Wojick, where the two trade ideas and recalibrate the plan.<\/p>\n

Conversations between Ohman and his pitching coach rarely remain tethered to baseball. Over coffee and Chipotle in Orlando, Fla., Ohman drifts from pitch sequencing to dissecting \u201cStar Wars\u201d canon or plotting a detour through Harry Potter World.<\/p>\n

He can just as easily trace the architecture of Theo Epstein\u2019s title teams as an executive with the Red Sox and Cubs as diagram the machine-learning infrastructure behind Divergent\u2019s 3D-printed automotive systems \u2014 the factory-floor futurism Yale toured during a road series against Pepperdine in Los Angeles this past weekend.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll point out that Yale\u2019s scoreboard at Bush Field was salvaged from the hull of a decommissioned submarine, and just as casually recall sitting down with President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. It\u2019s the sort of access that feels routine in his orbit. With Epstein as a mentor and Yale products Mike Elias and Craig Breslow \u2014 executives with the Orioles and Red Sox, respectively \u2014 as tangible proof points, Ohman studies the mechanics of a front office. After all, it\u2019s his endgame.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be a one-trick pony here,\u201d Ohman said. \u201cThere\u2019s always people here keeping you on your toes. \u2026 You have to bring something to the table that isn\u2019t just your expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jack Ohman’s career stats<\/p>\n

YearRecordERAWHIPIPHitsK\/BB<\/p>\n

2025<\/p>\n

8-1<\/p>\n

1.34<\/p>\n

0.882<\/p>\n

73.2<\/p>\n

45<\/p>\n

87\/20<\/p>\n

2026<\/p>\n

1-0<\/p>\n

1.35<\/p>\n

0.825<\/p>\n

13.1<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

19\/5<\/p>\n

But before any front office future materializes, the 2025 Perfect Game College Freshman Pitcher of the Year is likely headed for the major leagues. He\u2019ll travel there from Yale \u2014\u00a0an institution commonly defined more by its intellect than its athletes\u00a0\u2014 which, to him, has always been the appeal.<\/p>\n

Ohman, a National Honor Society alum who is as comfortable in classrooms as clubhouses, finished 2025 with the lowest ERA in the country at 1.34. He led the Ivy League with eight wins, suffocated hitters to a .171 average against and struck out 87 in 73 2\/3 innings, earning Yale\u2019s first All-American selection in nearly two decades.<\/p>\n

Zoom out across college athletics, and that resume foreshadows a divorce. A non-Power 4 freshman ace is usually courted, compensated and gone.<\/p>\n

For someone so comfortable with equations, Ohman had no interest in solving this one the usual way. With NIL offers stacking and Power 4 overtures circling,\u00a0Ohman could have become the next transfer headline or remain something rarer: a student-athlete who never considered the \u201cstudent\u201d ornamental.<\/p>\n

MLB DRAFT PROSPECT!<\/p>\n

\u25b6\ufe0fYale RHP Jack Ohman’s 99-mph fastball has him at top of draft boardshttps:\/\/t.co\/aZbjw1vyWI<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/9xnSONOl73<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 NE Baseball Journal (@NE_Baseball) February 3, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

When the attention permeated New Haven, Conn., it wasn\u2019t confined to Ohman himself. It reached his coaches\u2019 inboxes and his father\u2019s orbit, too \u2014 Will Ohman, who spent more than a decade in the major leagues.<\/p>\n

The volume of what Yale head coach Brian Hamm described as \u201cillegal recruiting\u201d grew so relentless that Will Ohman, his son\u2019s lifelong baseball sounding board, nearly changed his phone number to escape the 30 to 40 calls flooding in each day. The efforts even turned clandestine, coaches calling from burner phones and agents offering representation should he enter the portal. Money even dangled in front of his high school coach as leverage.<\/p>\n

Inside Yale\u2019s clubhouse, though, there was stability in the understanding that Ohman wasn\u2019t leaving. Whatever waited elsewhere, he said, had no appeal \u2014 something Hamm described as \u201cincredible social maturity\u201d and a testament to Ohman\u2019s ability to manage a distraction \u201cthat the team didn\u2019t need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a thing of loyalty,\u201d Ohman said. \u201cThe staff took a chance on me and \u2026 I would feel like I\u2019m letting them down if I left after last season. You always want to put your team on the map, put your area on the map. If I could keep doing that, that would be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yale has largely sidestepped the churn reshaping college athletics. Of the 28 players on its roster, only one is a portal pickup. The Bulldogs went 31-14 last spring and claimed a share of the Ivy League regular-season crown. Not a single player left.<\/p>\n

Ohman\u2019s rationale for staying traced back to why he first chose Yale: a chance to chase both baseball and an elite education \u2014\u00a0something he had \u201cworked too hard in high school to let all that go to the wayside.\u201d The portal entered the periphery of Ohman\u2019s thinking, before he weighed its future value against instant gratification.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s like, \u2018Coach, I have no interest in leaving. The Yale degree is worth $10 to $20 million more than any of these other places, so unless someone\u2019s giving me $10 to $20 million in NIL money, I\u2019m not going anywhere,\u2019\u201d Wojick said. \u201cHe really values how Yale is going to change his life after he\u2019s done playing baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew, too, that at a traditional power program, he \u201cwouldn\u2019t have gotten time of day\u201d as a freshman, let alone been afforded the latitude to experiment and recalibrate when things faltered. Yale offered him runway,\u00a0and he used all of it.<\/p>\n

At Brophy College Prep in Phoenix, Ariz., Ohman logged barely 40 innings across his entire high school career. He was a hitter first, a position player by trade; pitching, he said, was a \u201cfun thing I do on the side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the fastball touched 94 mph, the limited workload tempered Power 4 interest, leaving him with just two offers out of high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat lit a little bit of a fire,\u201d Ohman said. \u201cI want people to know who I am. I don\u2019t want to be this guy who plays for a no-name school or is content with being mediocre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wojick\u2019s first in-person look came in the 2022 Arizona Fall Classic, where Ohman\u2019s athleticism and competitiveness translated more vividly than his resume. At the time, Wojick profiled Ohman as an \u201cabove-average Division I pitcher,\u201d penciled in as a midweek option rather than a frontline starter.<\/p>\n

But did the thin sample size raise eyebrows?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d Hamm said, \u201cit\u2019s something we really liked. It\u2019s one of the things we target in our recruiting process, because it allows for a guy like him to fly under the radar.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that typically, many of the game\u2019s best pitchers were once high school shortstops.<\/p>\n

But Ohman, who admitted to feeling \u201clike an imposter\u201d and \u201ckind of a fraud\u201d in his recruiting class, was surrounded by pitchers who arrived with ingrained routines and years of repetition \u2014 elements he was only beginning to construct. The learning curve was steep and, in the fall, unforgiving.<\/p>\n

Early intrasquads offered the illusion of novelty. Hitters hadn\u2019t seen him yet, and his arm jumped on them. But familiarity eroded the advantage. Once teammates timed him up, \u201cblaring issues,\u201d as he put it, surfaced \u2014 a breaking ball he couldn\u2019t land often enough, a fastball too predictable, a delivery built on an exaggerated Bronson Arroyo-style leg kick that unraveled under pressure.<\/p>\n

Wojick still has the numbers scrawled on his whiteboard. Across every internal metric \u2014 walks, hits allowed, runs conceded \u2014 Ohman ranked last. The coaching staff even toyed with utilizing him as an infielder rather than as a pitcher or lowering his arm slot to unlock something the current version couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was terrible as a freshman pitcher in the fall,\u201d Wojick said, \u201clike, he was the worst pitcher on our team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nothing about that fall suggested the All-American that Ohman would soon become. What changed?<\/p>\n

Ohman returned home to Arizona that winter and stripped his mechanics down to the studs. With his father\u2019s help,\u00a0he eliminated the high leg kick, simplified his hand path and refined his delivery around efficiency and repetition. He studied film of Jacob deGrom, first imitating, then gradually personalizing it.<\/p>\n

By January, the fastball cut sharper through the zone and the breaking ball landed with more regularity. Better? Yes. Enough? No.<\/p>\n

Wojick called Ohman into his office and laid out a choice: remain a midweek option or commit fully to becoming the staff\u2019s Friday night starter. The promotion would come with conditions: add another weapon and abandon the tinkering that defined his fall.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t hard to predict which route the \u201cvicious competitor\u201d took. Ten minutes in, the new pitch began eliciting whiffs, altering the conversation in the coaches\u2019 room.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe threw a couple, and we\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re close,\u2019\u201d Wojick said. \u201cThree pitches later, it was there. When he threw at intersquad, right off the bat, you\u2019re like, \u2018There it is.\u2019 It\u2019s just another testament to how cerebral he is.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The new version of Ohman surfaced in his first collegiate outing. In relief against Queens, he struck out the side en route to four strikeouts in 2 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n

The separator wasn\u2019t simply how Ohman threw, but how he processed. Growing up inside the architecture of the game, Ohman and his dad treated MLB: The Show as a laboratory in calling pitches and scripting sequences.<\/p>\n

Two starts into 2026, Ohman has surrendered just six hits and two earned runs across 13 1\/3 innings, striking out 19 against five walks. In an 8 1\/3-inning win at Pepperdine on Friday, he fanned nine and walked two.<\/p>\n

In the arc of his ascent, Ohman has reinforced Yale\u2019s wager on projection. Wojick, who calls Jack the \u201cbest pitcher I\u2019ve ever been around,\u201d said interest in the program has ballooned and shows that Yale can function both as an academic and baseball heavyweight while embodying the staff\u2019s \u201cdevelopment process.\u201d Ohman\u2019s starts draw scouts from all 30 MLB teams, and he is emerging as a likely first-round pick in the 2027 draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts you on the map having that level of talent,\u201d Wojick said.<\/p>\n

Ohman\u2019s wiring trained him to see baseball as a system of leverage and foresight rather than a sequence of swings. Yale sharpened that lens, placing him in regular conversations with his mentor, Epstein, or Ron Darling \u2014 a Yale alum who pitched 13 seasons in the majors \u2014 lingering in the stands postgame.<\/p>\n

So for Ohman, Yale isn\u2019t scenery to a baseball ascent. For someone intent on reaching the major leagues \u2014 and subsequently governing one of its teams \u2014 the university is less compromise than it is alignment.<\/p>\n

\u201cJack\u2019s thing is like,\u201d Wojick said, \u201c\u2018I\u2019m cool because I go to Yale. I\u2019m not cool if I was in the SEC.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n