TAMPA — A year after graduating from Sickles High School, Jordan Yost came home to play ball. He just did it from the visitors’ dugout.
Yost, a 19-year-old shortstop prospect in the Detroit Tigers organization, batted leadoff for the Single-A Lakeland Flying Tigers in a four-game Florida State League series against the Tampa Tarpons at Steinbrenner Field, July 28-31, closing out both teams’ July schedules. In the opener, he went 1-for-5 with a run scored in a 10-7 Lakeland loss.
The Tigers made Yost the 24th overall pick in the 2025 MLB draft, a whirlwind that pulled him away from his original plan: joining his older brother, Hayden, on the University of Florida baseball team. He has stayed close to home anyway. Lakeland plays at Publix Field at Joker Marchant Stadium, a little more than an hour up Interstate 4.
At Sickles, Yost was a four-year starter and one of the most decorated players the program has produced, capping his career by helping the Gryphons win the school’s first state baseball title, the Class 6A crown in 2023.
As a senior in 2025, he led Sickles in batting average (.420), hits (42) and runs (48) while driving in 26 runs and hitting 4 home runs. He stole a team-high 28 bases, committed just two errors at shortstop and struck out once all season. He finished as the school’s career hits leader with 105, along with a .360 average, 102 runs, 65 RBIs and 61 stolen bases.
That senior season brought a trio of honors: the Wade Boggs Athletic Achievement Award, presented by Hillsborough County Public Schools; Florida Athletic Coaches Association District 15 player of the year; and the Saladino Baseball Award, given annually since 1971 to a standout Hillsborough County senior. Yost was the third Sickles player to win the Saladino in seven seasons, joining Dylan Eskew in 2019 and Caden McDonald in 2023.
Through 58 games with the Flying Tigers, Yost is batting .253 with 55 hits, 11 doubles, 2 triples, 1 home run, 19 RBIs, 44 runs, 43 walks and 13 stolen bases. He has committed six errors in the field.
Hayden Yost turned pro this summer as well. The Seattle Mariners took him in the fifth round, 162nd overall, in the 2026 MLB draft in early July, and he reported to the rookie-level Arizona Complex League Mariners. He batted .262 with 10 home runs and 23 RBIs as a junior at Florida — and shared an infield with his brother on that 2023 championship team.