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How an ex-Twins farmhand created a baseball app with MLB star power

He was the Twins’ Mr. Irrelevant, a 39th-round pick with no business playing at Triple-A Rochester less than two months after he was drafted out of UCLA. Yet Jake Hirabayashi’s versatility provided him with a rare, brief opportunity that eventually led to the creation of a baseball development app, for which he’s already raised $4.65 million in seed money.

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Promoted out of necessity from rookie ball to Triple A at the 2019 trade deadline, Hirabayashi spent 10 formative days surrounded by experienced teammates, who invited him to partake in their early batting practice sessions. The end result of Hirabayashi’s Triple-A experience is the Futures App, an innovative platform enabling teams to create their own environment for player development. This comprehensive platform encompasses drill templates, video analysis, remote coaching, strength and conditioning schedules, and an extensive drill database performed by a dozen current MLB players, including former MVP Ryan Braun.

In his mind, it wasn’t what Hirabayashi absorbed from his friendly teammates, but how he learned from them that spurred the idea for the app.

“They started giving me full-blown hitting lessons before they would get ready, which was so crazy,” Hirabayashi said. “I felt like I learned so much in such a short period of time. These guys, who have years and years of experience, can simplify things in a way that sometimes coaches can’t because they’re actually (playing) every single day.”

Hirabayashi understands that what worked for him may not be as effective for everybody else.

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Throughout a career that took him through four seasons at UCLA and to both the Northwoods and Frontier Leagues, Hirabayashi played for dozens of different coaches. Even though the concepts provided at each stop were similar, the lessons taught by some coaches resonated better than others because of the way they were presented.

He hopes to use those valuable lessons to tap into a burgeoning youth sports market — worth an estimated $19 billion and expected to reach $77.6 billion by 2026 — by creating a tool for players of all ages to easily receive instruction from a variety of voices.

Late in 2020, Hirabayshi, who previously built websites to sell fishing gear, designed the app. He pitched Braun in March 2021 after being introduced by a mutual acquaintance, and the former MVP eventually became his first investor and co-founder.

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Braun’s involvement opened a pathway to include current Major League Baseball players such as Pete Alonso, Bobby Witt Jr., Corbin Burnes, Will Smith, Jack Flaherty and J.T. Realmuto, who filmed a series of fundamental drills for the app.

Shortly after the company was founded in May 2021, Hirabayashi was pitching venture capitalists while he played for the Windy City ThunderBolts, a Frontier League team based in the Southwest Chicago suburbs.

“I was meeting with VCs in the locker room,” Hirabayashi said. “I remember I pitched this venture fund that actually ended up investing in the seed round. I was pitching him next to two washing machines and our mascot getting dressed for the game. Everyone’s looking at me like I’m crazy.”

(Courtesy of Jake Hirabayashi)

Though he didn’t follow traditional routes to attract investors, Hirabayashi, who retired in the middle of the 2021 season, said he brought in $2.65 million during the pre-seed round of funding. He recently raised an additional $2 million with an investment from Entrada Ventures.

Hirabayashi said the app currently reaches thousands of players from every level of baseball except for professional teams, though he hopes to eventually tap into that market, too. He said current clients include the Stanford, UCLA and Cal State-Northridge baseball programs as well as NAIA schools and various high school and travel ball teams.

As a former player, Hirabayashi thinks one of the software’s best applications is the two-way communication it can provide a coach and a player. Each team’s accounts are private, which affords coaches the ability to design individual lessons, have a player perform the drill in front of a camera and upload it for comparison and additional instruction.

“This was all something that I wanted as a kid, Ryan wanted as a kid, pretty much anyone who’s a big baseball fan wanted as a kid,” he said.

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While it didn’t arrive soon enough to change his baseball career, Hirabayashi appreciates the whirlwind of events that led him to Triple-A Rochester and thus spawned the app.

Struggling in the outfield? Whiffing on those high fastballs?

Two-time MLB All-Star ⭐ ⭐ @christianyelich has some drills for you to try. Come train with him exclusively on The Futures App.

If you coach a team, book a demo today.

#baseball #brewers #christianyelichpic.twitter.com/Fs4YycTusw

— The Futures App (@thefuturesapp) June 22, 2023

The 2019 Twins were in the midst of a 101-win season as the Bomba Squad took the American League Central by storm, blasting an MLB-record 307 home runs. They made two trades at the deadline to address their bullpen, one of which included dealing Rochester outfielder Jaylin Davis to the San Francisco Giants. At the same time, Rochester catcher Winston Sawyer required a trip to the injured list.

Suddenly, Rochester was extremely short-handed on the bench.

“That definitely was a crazy stretch,” said Twins assistant general manager Jeremy Zoll, who was the team’s farm director from 2018-19. “We were scrambling to sign some players out of Indy ball at that time to try to just stay afloat. … Our position player group had dwindled pretty low. Whenever we could get a multi-position person to fill in, that was usually particularly useful, especially one who could go in behind the plate if needed.”

In a perfect world, Hirabayashi’s name wouldn’t have been considered. Eight weeks earlier, he was the 1,169th player selected of 1,217 drafted.

Hirabayashi was drafted by the Twins as a catcher in a class that included Matt Wallner, Spencer Steer, Brent Headrick, Louie Varland and Edouard Julien.

Wallner, who played with Hirabayashi in the Gulf Coast League and later at Low-A Cedar Rapids, remembers being curious about his teammate more for what he accomplished off the diamond. At the time, Hirabayashi built websites and says he earned $20,000 per month selling fishing rods and reels from Bass Pro Shops and Shimano as a third-party retailer.

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“I might have been the highest-paid minor leaguer,” Hirabayashi said with a laugh. “And I wasn’t holding any inventory.”

He also told tales about his father, Keith Cooke Hirabayashi, a martial artist, actor and stuntman whose credits included the “Mortal Kombat” movies.

“He was always doing something more than baseball,” Wallner said of Jake.

But on Aug. 1, Hirabayshi was thrust onto a roster in crisis. Though he’d only been drafted on June 5, Hirabayashi made sense for Rochester because he could play infield and catch. Despite hitting .197/.383/.312 for the Twins’ rookie league team, Hirabayashi was promoted from the sport’s lowest level to one shy of reaching the big leagues.

“We’ve never had it,” said Triple-A Rochester announcer Josh Whetzel, who’s called games for the team since 2003. “That’s the only time that I can remember. It may have happened with some other teams, but I’m almost positive that’s the first time that’s ever happened (here). … For whatever reason, the Twins felt he was the right kind of guy to do it.”

A day after Hirabayashi’s promotion, Nick Gordon exited with an injury. Hirabayashi pinch ran for Gordon and later batted twice, lining out to center field in his first at-bat before striking out.

https://cdn.theathletic.com/app/uploads/2023/08/14165550/Hirabayashi-running.mp3

The following day, Hirabayashi arrived at the clubhouse well ahead of first pitch. He encountered Alejandro De Aza, Wilin Rosario and Drew Maggi, a group with more than 30 seasons of pro ball experience.

Hirabayashi quickly accepted when the veterans offered him the chance to take early batting practice with them. Though he was returned to rookie ball on Aug. 10, Hirabayashi spent his entire time at Triple A absorbing what he could. He remained at rookie ball until another roster crunch resulted in a promotion to Low-A Cedar Rapids for the final week of the season.

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While it was only 10 days, it’s an experience Hirabayashi — who was released by the Twins after the COVID-19 pandemic erased the 2020 season — relishes for multiple reasons.

“Just by proxy of me being there, they started to ask if I wanted to hit with them,” Hirabayashi said. “How they communicate potentially even the same message the coach was trying to communicate, they can do it because they could talk more about feel, which I thought was, like, super impactful. … I learned so much that I wish I knew 10 years ago. Maybe I wouldn’t have gotten picked in the 39th round.”

(Top photo courtesy Jake Hirabayashi)

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Abbie Anker

Update: 2024-05-17