Five questions with Marlins rookie pitcher Jordan Yamamoto

Jordan Yamamoto is a rookie pitcher with the Miami Marlins who was part of the package the team received in return for Christian Yelich in 2018. He made his Major League debut this season on June 12 and is seen as a major part of the Marlins rebuild. We discussed his experiences leading up to his rookie season.

5R: What was your MLB Draft experience like?

JY: I was actually sleeping when I got drafted. The draft happens and you’re six hours behind in Hawaii so it was like eight o-clock in the morning in the offseason right after high school so I didn’t want to wake up. My agent called me and said, “Hey, you’ve been drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers, congratulations!”

5R: Take us back to when you found out that you were being traded to Miami. Where were you when you heard the news?

JY: I was actually eating lunch in my neighborhood watching “Law & Order”. I got the call from the farm director of the Brewers and he said, “You’ve been traded.” It never hit me until I got on a plane and headed to Florida.

5R: As a rookie establishing yourself within the Marlins, it seems like your minor league days are over. There’s an account on Instagram called “Minor League Grinders” that showcases videos submitted by the players of what the journey is like, whether it’s the peanut butter & jelly sandwich diet, working out in a locker room shower, bus rides, etc. What has been your “Minor League Grinders” moment?

JY: Has to be in Clinton, IA, when I was there in 2016 with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The locker room was the old locker room before and they wouldn’t sweep the ground so all we had to do was grab all of our towels and lay it on the ground so we could walk around because if not you’re like walking on the warning track. It was just kind of rough. Our visitor’s locker room in our old stadium in Helena (which no longer has a MiLB team) never had bathroom doors in the stalls, which is crazy.

5R: What’s your mindset when dealing with adversity?

JY: For me, it’s the sun rises and it’s a new day. That’s how I grew up. My dad would say “flush it” and that was a key word because you can’t change the past in anything you do in life. The only thing you can do is use that to better your future. That’s what it comes down to. You have to try to stay consistent because the lower lows you get, the higher highs you get, it’s going to be a lot harder to stay consistent the whole time.

5R: You’re also a skilled barber and have given your minor league teammates fresh cuts during the season. Where did that passion come from?

JY: I grew up in art. I grew up painting, drawing, sketching, all this stuff. One year I was like, “I’m gonna try it,” and it just became natural. I started watching YouTube videos and it all just went from there. It’s hard to find a barbershop every city you go to in the minor leagues because you travel so much. It’s hard to trust some guys, especially if you don’t know them because a haircut can make or break two weeks. Especially for guys in the minor leagues because they like to go out and have fun but if you go out with a pretty bad haircut then you can’t add it to the club. It’s just more for them and on top of that, they don’t make too much money, it’s more of a, “here, you don’t have to spend $40-50 on a haircut, I’ll just do it for you.”