Fishman recalls his long journey to majors
Lefty pitcher back in Triple-a after solid performance in debut
Union College graduate Jake Fishman returned to his childhood baseball diamond on Thursday night, just five days after making his big league pitching debut for the Miami Marlins.
He spoke to about 30 children and their parents with the Sharon (Mass.) Youth Baseball & Softball Association.
“It was nice to go back and talk to those kids and everybody,” Fishman said Friday. “They were asking me all sorts of questions, like what pitches I throw and just basically my journey (to the majors).”
Quite a journey it was. In 2016, the left-hander was drafted out of Division III Union by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 30th round. He spent six years in the minors and changed organizations when the Marlins selected him in the 2020 Rule 5 draft.
Pitching for the Triple-a
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Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, Fishman got the call on July 28, while his team was in Georgia. He flew to Miami and made his debut last Sunday in the Marlins’ 9-3 loss to the New York Mets at Loandepot Park.
With his parents and girlfriend in attendance, Fishman threw 31⁄3 innings of one-run relief, allowing four hits with no walks or strikeouts. He was the first Union alumus to appear in a major league game since Schenectady native Bill Cunningham in 1912, according to baseballreference.com.
“Finally making it, I felt like I knew what it would take a lot of years ago,” Fishman said. “Now that I’ve made it, I realize that I was so wrong, but you just have to take it every step of the way and basically just keeping going with those small steps until you eventually get there.”
Fishman is back in Triple-a with Jacksonville for the time being. The Marlins designated him for assignment on Monday to make room for lefty pitcher Jesus Luzardo, who came off the 60-day injured list. Fishman cleared waivers on Thursday and flew Friday to Jacksonville to rejoin the Jumbo Shrimp.
Fishman said he was “naive” when he was younger to think it would be easy to make it to the big leagues.
“You realize that it really does take years and years of work and really fine-tuning everything about your game in order to make it,” he said.
Union baseball coach Paul Mound, at a high-academic baseball showcase on Long Island this week, said he’s showing video of Fishman to recruits. Mound originally recruited Fishman to be Union’s starting center fielder before converting him to pitcher, where he became an All-american.
“We’re pulling up our cellphones and saying, ‘Here you go. This is not an every day occurrence, but you can be a high-academic student and still be a major league baseball player,” Mound said. “Obviously, it helps recruiting, but that kid (Fishman) basically spring-boarded us into a bunch of years of success.”
Fishman returned to Union in 2018 to complete his degree in managerial economics with a minor in digital media.
“I’d say (Union) played a massive role,” Fishman said. “Being at a school that I loved and was happy at regardless of baseball, that only helps me improve the baseball even further.”
Since then, he pitched for Israel in the Tokyo Olympics last year before reaching another personal milestone last Sunday.
“It was different,” Fishman said. “I’ve trained my whole life to make it to the major leagues. While pitching in the Olympics was also a surreal experience and was amazing, it hasn’t been my sole purpose over the past years.”
When Marlins manager Don Mattingly summoned him on Sunday
in the third inning, Fishman found himself with runners on first and second and Miami trailing 6-0. Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, a four-time All-star, was due up.
Fishman got Lindor to ground into a fielder’s choice at third to end the inning.
“To have that guy as your first at-bat, you’re telling yourself, ‘Wow, this is very real right now,’ ” Fishman said. “When I eventually got him to ground out, one, it felt amazing, two, I realized that I could pitch at the major league level and it felt very surreal.”
With his sidearm delivery, Fishman mixed sinkers and sliders to subdue the first-place Mets despite all of his 49 pitches (33 strikes) being clocked below 90 miles per hour.
“I’m obviously not a hard thrower, but what they’ve come out with the analytics these days is, my fastball actually plays really well because it has so much sink to it,” Fishman said. “As far as the Marlins are concerned, they look at your release height and the vertical movement on it.”
Though Fishman could have been claimed off waivers by another team this week, he said he was pleased to remain in the Marlins’ system.
“They know me,” he said. “They’ve seen me pitch at the big league level, so it definitely gives me confidence to hopefully get back up there.”