Ex-Marlins pitcher Yamamoto thriving in new career path as high school baseball coach

Jordan Yamamoto knows the exhilaration of making your major league pitching debut a successful one.

As of last week, the recently-retired former Miami Marlins righthander felt a similar feeling when he aced his coaching debut.

“I cried after both,” Yamamoto said with a laugh.

Back in 2019, Yamamoto made a memorable debut with the Marlins, winning his first three starts and pitching 14 consecutive scoreless innings to begin his career.

Five years later, Yamamoto, 28, is hitting the ground running as a coach.

Last week, Yamamoto guided Dwyer High School in Palm Beach Gardens to its first ever state championship when they won the Class 6A title after a 10-3 win over Gainesville Buchholz at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers, Fla.

“It was a great year to have with this team,” Yamamoto said. “What can I say? The time I am having with these boys, I’m loving it. I came in here knowing that we had a really good team.

“This is the first time in school history that we made it to the state finals, and we won. It’s kudos to the players. They pushed each other, in the off season, and all the way through the season, to come out here, and finish the job.”

Yamamoto, one of the four players the Marlins received in the Christian Yelich trade in 2018 along with Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz and Monte Harrison, pitched three seasons for the Marlins until he was traded to the New York Mets in 2021. He pitched only 6.2 innings that season for the Mets and was demoted to the minors and did not pitch again after that season.

None of the four players are in the majors anymore. But Yamamoto’s baseball career wasn’t over.

Dwyer had long been a playoff regular, but had made only one appearance in the state final four in 2017. The Panthers had been on the cusp of returning each of the past two seasons, losing to Doral Academy in the regional finals.

Last summer, Yamamoto was approached about becoming Dwyer’s coach.

It became a perfect match for a team that needed something to clear that last hurdle, and a pitcher who was looking for the next step in his career and life.

“I retired, and I still had a hole in my heart from baseball,” said Yamamoto while trying not to get emotional at his team’s postgame press conference. “But these boys filled it.”

Yamamoto brought an added intensity to Dwyer’s practices in the hopes of preparing them for the grind of a state championship run.

“Four hour practices,” Dywer infielder Bryce Jackson, a USF commit, said. “It was brutal at first and I thought Coach was crazy. But now we know what it was all about.”

For Yamamoto, it wasn’t just about conditioning his players for the season, though. It was about getting them ready for the next level whether it was playing in college or pro.

Dwyer has several players committed to colleges including Jackson, pitcher Dawson Thrush, an Air Force signee, center fielder Jackson Miller, an Ole Miss signee, and pitcher/outfielder Kody Morgan, another USF signee.

“We have a lot of guys that might be going into the draft so I have to get them ready,” said Yamamoto, who was born in Hawaii and was a 12th-round pick of the Brewers in 2014.

Dwyer went 23-7-1 this season and navigated through a tough region that included West Boca Raton and its ace James Litman, an FAU commit and potential draft pick this summer. Dwyer blanked West Boca 3-0 to advance to state. The Panthers then routed Viera 8-0 in the semifinals before routing Buchholz in the final.

“I always told the boys,” Yamamoto said. “The seventh inning of the 32nd game is when guys are going to fall apart, if they’re not ready. Those practices were meant for a reason. Now, they finally understand it. All those times they were running laps in the rain. All the time they put in, now they know what it’s about.”

For Yamamoto, the key was being relatable to his players.

Being not too distant in age helped him quickly build a strong bond with his team rather than have them see him as any sort of star status being a former major leaguer.

“I’m a pitcher so just to talk about basic mechanics and do live ABs and him to tell me things and help me become a better pitcher,” Thrush said. “He coached a couple of us when we were 12 years old before he made it. He came out a lot and I used to play catch with him.”

Added Jackson: “I don’t even see Coach as a friend. I see him as a brother.”