Marlins Franchise Record Holder Retires At Age 26

After just three seasons in the majors, at the young age of 26, former Miami Marlins and New York Mets hurler Jordan Yamamoto has retired from baseball. 

After spending the first part of spring training on a minor league deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, it must have been the very rough 2.1 innings he suffered through, to the tune of five hits, three home runs, five earned runs and a 13.50 ERA that convinced him it was time to go.

Yamamoto said “it is crazy and only right that I end my career the same way it started. On a back field game in Arizona. It’s poetry if you ask me.”

He announced his goodbye to the game on social media:

On to the next chapter… 🤙🏽 pic.twitter.com/Jemayy8Ic1

— Jordan Yamamoto (@jyamaz50) March 13, 2023

The former 12th round pick out of Honolulu, Hawaii got off to a sensational start as a rookie in 2019, when he set a Miami Marlins franchise record with 14 scoreless innings to start his career. 

He finished the season with 15 starts for the Fish, posting a 4.46 ERA, and a relatively impressive 1.14 WHIP. He only allowed 54 hits in 78.2 innings. But walking 4.1 per nine innings was his downfall, and things really unravelled in the 2020 season, when he was blasted for an 18.26 ERA in 11 innings in Miami, surrendering an untenable eight home runs in those 11 frames. 

He pitched 6.2 innings for the Mets in 2021 and spent 2022 toiling away in the Mets' farm system, with a 6.00 ERA. 

"As I sit on my flight back home," he wrote in his send-off tweet, "there are so many emotions I’m feeling but none is regret. This has been an amazing journey and nothing short of unbelievable. A little kid from Hawaii with a dream. A dream to play in the MLB. If you would have told me at 10 years old that I would go on to be a big league pitcher and hold a franchise record, I would have never believed you."

Good luck to Yamamoto in his next chapter. 

Photo: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports