Yamamoto inspiring hope
Hawaiian rookie 3-0 for struggling Miami
In the hours after reaching the apex of his professional career – a commanding seven scoreless innings for the Marlins in his major league debut – Jordan Yamamoto soon realized the company he now kept.
Out of the blue, a text message from Shane Victorino hit his mobile device, odd given that they’d never met, nor spoken.
No matter. Yamamoto was part of a special fraternity of ballplayers who emerged from Hawaii, which has always been a fertile ground for talent but a hit-or-miss scouting proposition thanks to its vast distance from the mainland.
Yamamoto’s Oahu upbringing is just one facet that makes the right-hander a special case.
Since 2000, just 10 Hawaiians have made their debuts as major league pitchers – compared to 74 for, say, Georgia.
Yamamoto was drafted in the 12th round, a range in which just 12% of draftees make the major leagues, according to a Society of American Baseball Research study.
And in an era when a 95 mph fastball is usually a prerequisite to enter a major league game, Yamamoto posted zero after zero in four starts despite a fastball that hovers at 91 mph, relying instead on an extreme change of speeds to beguile hitters.
Yamamoto, 23, will carry a 1.24 ERA into his sixth and next start. He’ll also take a sense of how the stars aligned for him into this and every outing.
“I’m getting my one shot right here,” he says. “I’m going to make the most of it.”
The Marlins hope it is an extended look. Rookie All-Star Sandy Alcantara and fellow rotation mate Zac Gallen were acquired from St. Louis for slugging outfielder Marcell Ozuna in December 2017.
Yamamoto arrived a few weeks later in a deal for Christian Yelich, who’s now bidding for a second consecutive National League MVP award on behalf of the Brewers.
The Marlins? They are 33-55, headed for a second consecutive last-place finish, but at least are seeing tangible returns from the trades of Yelich, Ozuna and reigning MVP Giancarlo Stanton that dismantled a contender.
“It’s really cool to see,” says shortstop Miguel Rojas, who along with Martin Prado is the longest-tenured Marlin. “You have to feel good about what the organization is doing. Fans and people following the Marlins should be excited about the future of the franchise and trusting the process of what they’re doing.
“I’m really proud of what (the pitchers) have been doing to get to this point. Now that they’re here, they have to be able to battle and give us the opportunity to win. I feel guys like that give you the extra energy to get through the year.”
For Yamamoto, emerging as a potential cornerstone for a big-league club seems a long shot in hindsight.
A native of Pearl City – just a few miles north of Pearl Harbor on Oahu – Yamamoto did not frequently get seen by major league scouts in high school and says he didn’t pitch particularly well when they did come around.
So he and a group of like-minded teammates took their athletic wares to the mainland.
A travel team composed of Hawaiian prospects made several journeys to California and Arizona before Yamamoto’s senior year of high school. They were, in essence, commuting: fly to the mainland, play in a tournament, fly back, repeat.
The sacrifice of his parents – his father, Larry, is a diesel mechanic and his mother, Candice, is vice president of a credit union – is not lost on him.
“I just can’t thank them enough for that, because I definitely wouldn’t be in pro ball otherwise,” he says. “When I went away to the mainland I was like, ‘You know, I have a second shot here.’ And I made the most of it.”
It’s definitely a departure from the previous generation, where the window of exposure was even tighter.
“These guys are going to the mainland constantly,” says Nationals catcher Kurt Suzuki, who was drafted out of college in 2002 and has passed Victorino for most plate appearances (5,485) by a Hawaiian-born player. “Where, in where my senior year in high school, there was one tournament in the mainland, the first time ever a Hawaii team went, and I was on that team. But that was it. Now, there’s tournaments and teams and showcases up the ying-yang in Hawaii now, which is awesome, because there’s a lot of talent out there.”
It is starting to show. Rangers catcher Isiah Kiner-Falefa, St. Louis second baseman Kolten Wong (whose younger brother Kean is in the Rays’ system) and Padres All-Star closer Kirby Yates are among the recent products to firmly establish themselves as big-leaguers.
“The more exposure they get, the more you’ll see Hawaii kids,” says Suzuki, 35. “They can play. It’s just a matter of getting acclimated living off the island. Getting away from home is the hardest transition for a Hawaii kid.”
Yamamoto had a fellow native along for the ride. The Brewers made Kodi Medeiros, a Hilo native, the 12th overall pick in 2014; Yamamoto, who bested Medeiros in a state quarterfinal game that spring, was their 12th-round pick.
Initially, Medeiros was on the faster track as the higher-picked player. In 2015, Medeiros was in the rotation at Milwaukee’s low Class A affiliate while Yamamoto repeated rookie ball.
Soon, though, Yamamoto climbed swiftly, striking out 10 batters per nine innings in low- and high-A stops in 2016-17. That got him on the prospect radar and he was soon in the package to Miami for Yelich.
Medeiros was dealt by the Brewers, too, to the White Sox last summer in a deal for reliever Joakim Soria. He has yet to reach Class AAA but remains a key sounding board for Yamamoto.
Their divergent paths offer proof that draft pedigree often matters less as years go by.
“At the end of the day, I’m not really worried about the round I was picked, how much money anyone was paid,” says Yamamoto. “You still have to throw the same jersey on and throw the same ball. People who do get drafted (higher) get maybe a little more leniency. At the same time, they’re out there busting their butt too, same as I am. We would never look down on each other. It was more of a competitive side between us where we always helped each other out, pushed each other.
“Even when he was in low-A and I was in rookie ball, we’d still call each other after outings and say, ‘How’d you do? What went wrong?’ One of the best quotes I’ve ever heard was, ‘You don’t ever want to bet against your teammate.’ You always want to build them up.
“Because if you’re a big-league player, you’re going to be in the big leagues, somewhere. It may not be on the same team you want to be on. So I’m never thinking, ‘I don’t want this guy to do well.’ You know what? We’re going to push each other to be the best, and we will find each other on the field somewhere. If it’s not together, we’ll face off against each other. And that’s the cool part about it.”
In two starts each against the Cardinals and the Phillies, he pitched 141⁄3 innings before giving up an earned run, dropping his 91-mph fastball into a fivepitch mix that includes a curveball that averages 74 mph.
In Yamamoto’s fifth start, he held the NL East-leading Braves to two hits in six innings with seven strikeouts to lower his ERA to 1.24 but didn’t get a decision.
“I don’t think anybody can ever get used to being in the big leagues,” Yamamoto said during the Marlins’ threegame series at Washington. “Like today, I walk outside, it’s just a crazy feeling – a new stadium, a big W up on the board.
“I don’t think I’m ever going to get used to it. It’s a crazy feeling.”