- January 14, 2026
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It was just another spring training game for the San Diego Padres. They played the Los Angeles Angels on March 21, 2021, in the lead-up to the regular season.
For right-hander Jordan Guerrero, though, it wouldn’t feel so ordinary.
He sat in the Padres’ bullpen with his eyes glued to the lineup. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout were on the card, but only took two at-bats each. Both departed before Guerrero saw action.
The phone rang, summoning the reliever to start warming up. He then realized Albert Pujols — one of his childhood idols — was tapped to hit second in the next inning.
Guerrero got the first batter out with two pitches, but it wasn’t so easy when Pujols stepped up.
One pitch. One home run.
“Twenty minutes after I got into the locker room, I probably had 20 missed calls and 30 texts from everyone just sending me the video,” Guerrero said.
Nearly five years have passed since his brief encounter with one of the greatest right-handed hitters the game has ever seen. He last toed the rubber as a professional pitcher in 2023.
These days, he’s in the business of helping young athletes collect their own memorable moments.
Guerrero has been named the new baseball coach for The Out-of-Door Academy. His resume stood out to the school, which handled over two dozen applicants bearing collegiate or professional experience.
“There’s an energy around Jordan that is contagious,” said ODA Athletic Director Andres Parra. “These kids, I felt wanted a coach who would push them, care for them, relate to them, but also have respect. Jordan’s a physical presence, but there’s more to him than that.”
At 29 years old, the 2014 Braden River High graduate steps into the role formerly held by Mike Matthews, who led the Thunder to the 2021 FHSAA Class 2A state title and 2A state semifinals in 2022. But ODA, finishing 15-11 last season, didn’t make it out of the regional quarterfinals.
This marks Guerrero’s first coaching job at the high school level. In his previous experience as a travel ball coach in the Sarasota-Bradenton area, he developed his philosophy — combining schools of thought to help every athlete capitalize on their respective strengths.
“How can you take the old-school approach with the knowledge of the new-school approach? To me, that’s the biggest thing,” Guerrero said. “I don’t think you can be either-or. If you go too far into the analytics and all this modern-day baseball, you lose some guys and you kind of lose what each guy brings to the team.”
He’s seen first-hand what modern coaching looks like at the highest level.
From 2015 through 2023, the 6-foot-5 pitcher played for the Padres’ organization. San Diego selected him at No. 177 overall in the sixth round of the 2015 MLB Draft following his one and only season at Polk State junior college.
Guerrero had spring training invites, but didn’t reach the majors. He did play a full season with the El Paso Chihuahuas of Triple-A in 2021, posting a 4.02 ERA and 40 strikeouts while allowing 43 hits across 40.1 innings pitched.
The Braden River product wrapped his professional career with a 3.10 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, 261 strikeouts, 16-13 record and 15 saves. He tallied 249.2 innings pitched in 168 appearances.
In perpetual pursuit of his MLB dream, he eventually grappled with the reality that thousands of big-league hopefuls before him once learned.
“Some of it’s luck,” Guerrero said. “There are some people who are born to play the game. Some of those guys are just born with that great adaptability to get better.”
His childhood in Sarasota entailed lots of late nights. As a self-described “baseball nut,” he stayed up just to watch MLB games being played on the West Coast, and on a daily basis, tuned into TBS for the Atlanta Braves and then-WGN for the Chicago Cubs.
At ODA, he will work with players who have aspirations of playing at the next level. There will be others, too, who see a future for themselves beyond the game.
Guerrero is prepared to lead all of them. But for those who do feel they have a destiny on the diamond, he will try to instill the process he saw Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado embody.
“So many kids get lost in how to get there. Obviously, the goal is there subtly, but the ‘how’ is everything for me,” Guerrero said. “That’s the big step-by-step that kids need to hear every single day.”
He still looks back on that encounter with Pujols and laughs about it every now and then. There’s another story, though, which he was quick to tell his new team.
One of his good friends, Nick Kuzia, graduated from Seymour High in Connecticut throwing a 78 miles-per-hour fastball. Kuzia emailed countless colleges, just looking for a shot, and got one from UMass Lowell.
As a college freshman, he pushed his velocity up to 82 mph. Then he improved from 82 to 85 mph during his sophomore season.
Kuzia wound up with the Toledo Mud Hens of Triple-A, hurling pitches at 97 mph.
“That story alone (says) there are those guys out there,” Guerrero said. “I know they’re far and few between, but there is a way to get there.”
