Jake Palmer will enter his fifth season on the UCLA Baseball staff in 2027, and his second as a full-time assistant coach.
Palmer guided UCLA through a historic 2026 campaign, delivering what is unquestionably the greatest regular season in program history to earn Big Ten Coach of the Year honors. This marked the third Coach of the Year honor of his career. The Bruins finished 52-8, matching the program record for total wins, and their 48-6 regular-season mark stands alone as the best in school history. After opening the year as the preseason No. 1, UCLA became the first team in college baseball history to remain the nation’s top-ranked team wire-to-wire across every major poll.
In Big Ten play, the Bruins were dominant, setting a new conference record with 28 wins and clinching the regular-season title with two weekends to spare. UCLA then swept through the Big Ten Tournament, defeating Purdue, No. 25 USC, and No. 13 Oregon to capture the program’s first-ever conference tournament championship. UCLA entered the postseason as the No. 1-overall seed for the first time since 2019, hosting an NCAA Regional for the second straight season.
The former Bruin standout had previously returned to the program as a graduate manager for the 2023 season before he was promoted to the Director of Player Development in 2024.
Palmer was a standout for UCLA as a grad transfer in 2022, making the Pac-12 All-Conference Team after slashing .296/.430/.371 as the Bruins’ primary first baseman. One of just two Bruins to appear in every game that season, Palmer led UCLA in both batting (.345) and OBP (.468) in Pac-12 competition. Notably, he reached base in a team-best 41 consecutive games from Mar. 5 to May 19. After the season, Palmer signed as an undrafted free agent with the New York Yankees, hitting .300 over the summer in rookie ball.
Palmer came to UCLA after a distinguished four-year career at UC Irvine, where he slashed .307/.446/.380 over 145 games. He had an OBP north of .430 in each of his four seasons at UCI, and was cited twice on the Big West All-Conference Team.
Palmer is a native of El Segundo, Calif.