Sickles’ Yost named Saladino Award winner

Sickles senior shortstop Jordan Yost is presented with the 2025 Saladino Award by Tony Saladino on Monday. Yost finished his senior season with a .412 batting average, scored 48 runs, had 26 RBI and 28 walks. 

Story by Jarrett Guthrie, Editor
Photos by Mike Camunas, Creative Director

BRANDON – Jordan Yost is a busy young man.

Still a few days away from Sickles High’s graduation ceremony on Thursday, he plans to start college classes at the University of Florida in late June.

Though a dream since childhood to play baseball for UF, Yost saw his professional prospects skyrocket this spring, going from outside the MLB.com Top 150 MLB draft prospect list in February to ranked No. 61 in the most recent release.

Related: Sickles’ humble Hit King Yost looks to lead one last hurrah

Yost has pro workouts with four teams over the next two weeks, and invites to both the Florida Athletic Coaches Association (FACA) senior all-star game and a national pro workout in Arizona.

Working around that tight schedule, on Monday, Yost, his family and coaches made an early-evening stop to Josephine’s Italian Market in Brandon, where he was welcomed by Tony Saladino and his family and named the 2025 Saladino Award winner.

“Getting this award is really cool, just getting the recognition,” Yost said. “And obviously coming from (Tony Saladino) means a lot, I know he has been around baseball forever in Tampa and a lot of special people have won. So, this means a lot to me.”

This season, Yost batted .412 (42 hits), scored 48 runs, had 26 RBI, 28 stolen bases, hit four home runs, walked 20 times and struck out just once.

The Saladino Baseball Award is presented annually, recognizing the outstanding performance by a Hillsborough County senior baseball player. The award has been presented since 1971, and Yost becomes the third Saladino Award winner from Sickles in the last six seasons, joining 2019 winner Dylan Eskew, and 2023 winner Caden McDonald.

“Jordan Yost represents everything our award hopes to recognize,” a statement from the Saladino Award Committee said. “Not only for his incredible talent on the field, but also for his character, leadership and scholastic excellence. Jordan embodies the very best of high school baseball. We are honored to welcome him into the long line of tremendous Saladino Award recipients over the last 54 years.”

In the last month Yost has also been named the FACA District 15 (Hillsborough County) Player of the Year and the Hillsborough County Commission’s Wade Boggs Award winner.

Yost may have entered the school year under the national radar, but he definitely found the attention of scouts prior to the season starting. After an impressive showing at the Florida Diamond Club’s showcase, the start of spring practices came with the addition of dozens of scouts making daily stops at Sickles workouts and games.

“I think he’s handled it so maturely,” Sickles head coach Eric Luksis said. “I think it was all very unexpected and kind of smacked him in the face once we got to the preseason. There were things going on in the fall, but it was mainly pretty quiet. But when we got to the preseason, there were 30 scouts at BP, and they’re there for every single game all season.

“I don’t think he was prepared for that moment or expected it, but the way he handled it – the moment he realized it, he said, ‘okay this is the reality of the situation. They’re here to see me.’ But I’ve never seen an 18-year-old handle it like this. It didn’t bother him, he didn’t change, he was the same guy this year as he was last … he’s so routine-based, he came out every day the same person.”

Ticking off a bulk of the sought after “tools” scouts drool over, Yost didn’t try to change who he was or over-perform this season.

“Not only him, but I thought our team handled it really well. But I think it was because of (Jordan’s) maturity is why our team handled it so well,” Luksis said. “At first it was talked about a ton, but then after the first week, nobody really talked about it the rest of the year … We still had a job to do, and Jordan never deviated from that line. His goal was to win a championship, and that was the only thing on his mind.”

In-turn, Yost credited Luksis with help in navigating the added attention.

“With all those distractions, I just tried to stay in my own lane and stay focused on my own goals,” Yost said. “It’s great to get the recognition, and Coach Luksis has helped me stay on that path, take it one day at a time, one pitch at a time, and I guess we’ll see what happens down the line.”
The awards this season have piled up, but Yost demurs at the idea he’s accomplished such things on his own.

“All these awards – it doesn’t take just me to win them – that is something I think about,” he said.

But he did admit, the Saladino Award had plenty of importance, and was grateful to Tony Saladino for that and the four years he and his teammates had participating in the annual spring break tournament.

“I think it’s honestly the most fun we have as a team, except maybe states,” Yost said of the tournament. “The week as a whole – it’s different – there’s no school and all you focus on is baseball against really good teams. I think you understand who your team is after that week.”

The MLB Draft is scheduled for July 13-15, and though excited at possibly hearing his name called early, Yost is staying focused on the things he’s able to control.

“What you do on the field leads to that,” Yost said of his possible selection in the upcoming MLB draft, “so, all you focus on is what you are doing, not the outside stuff.”

And in the meantime, Yost said he’s focused on his work, saying he’s going to take this summer to get, “bigger, faster, stronger.”

“I’m preparing to go to the University of Florida on June 25th, and whatever happens after that – it is what it is,” Yost said. “But yes, (playing professional baseball) has always been the dream and if the cards lineup, if everything goes well – then yeah, it would be a dream come true.”

But Yost also emphasized another dream: reuniting on the field at UF with his older brother, Hayden.

He said: “I can’t go wrong either way.”

⚾ ⚾

TONY SALADINO AWARD WINNERS
1971 – DAVIAN MENENDEZ (TAMPA CATHOLIC) & RICK FAULKNER (PLANT)
1972 – ANTHONY LAZZARA (TAMPA BAY TECH) & DAN BAZARTE (LETO)
1973 – MIKE HEATH (HILLSBOROUGH)*
1974 – NICK RAY (ROBINSON)
1975 – JOHN SHOUSE (CHAMBERLAIN)
1976 – SAMMY SPENCE (BRANDON)
1977 – DANNY PICKERN (PLANT CITY)
1978 – LENNY FAEDO (JEFFERSON)*
1979 – RICK FIGUEREDO (PLANT)
1980 – DAVID MAGADAN (JESUIT)*
1981 – VANCE LOVELACE (HILLSBOROUGH)*
1982 – RICHARD MONTELEONE (TAMPA CATHOLIC)*
1983 – JOHN RAMOS (PLANT)*
1984 – CHUCK DONAHUE (ROBINSON)
1985 – TINO MARTINEZ (JEFFERSON)*
1986 – GARY SHEFFIELD (HILLSBOROUGH)*
1987 – CHRIS MYERS (PLANT)
1988 – MIN PARK (LETO)
1989 – KIKI JONES (HILLSBOROUGH)
1990 – SALVY URSO (PLANT)
1991 – BRUCE THOMPSON (BRANDON)
1992 – TROY KENT (JESUIT)
1993 – TROY CARRASCO (JESUIT)
1994 – SCOTT GLASER (BRANDON)
1995 – MIKE VALDES (BLOOMINGDALE)
1996 – GREG HOWELL (BRANDON)
1997 – JASON ROMANO (HILLSBOROUGH)*
1998 – JEREMY GOMER (DURANT)
1999 – RYAN GLOGER (JESUIT)
2000 – PAUL WILLIAMS (GAITHER)
2001 – RYAN ANDERSON (GAITHER)
2002 – JOSH SAWYER (BRANDON)
2003 – BRANDON McARTHUR (ARMWOOD)
2004 – RYAN STRAUSS (BLOOMINGDALE)
2005 – CALEB GRAHAM (GAITHER)
2006 – CARMINE GIARDINA (DURANT)
2007 – TOMMY TOLEDO (ALONSO)
2008 – ALEX PANTELIODIS (ALONSO)
2009 – ROBERT BENINCASA (ARMWOOD)
2010 – JAMES RAMSAY (BRANDON)
2011 – JOSE FERNANDEZ (ALONSO)*
2012 – LANCE McCULLERS (JESUIT)*
2013 – TYLER DANISH (DURANT)*
2014 – ALEX FAEDO (ALONSO)*
2015 – KYLE TUCKER (PLANT)*
2016 – ANTONIO VELEZ (BRANDON)
2017 – DREW EHRHARD (WHARTON)
2018 – ROBBY MARTIN (JEFFERSON)
2019 – DYLAN ESKEW (SICKLES)
2020 – No award given (COVID-19)
2021 – SEAN HERMANN (DURANT)
2022 – JACK OWENS (BLOOMINGDALE)
2023 – CADEN MCDONALD (SICKLES)
2024 – NOAH SHEFFIELD (JESUIT)
2025 – JORDAN YOST (SICKLES)

*  = winner reached the MLB.