Jacob Amaya’s MLB debut with Miami Marlins was an emotional one for his family

The moment was enough to make Robert Amaya shed a tear — the first of many over an eventful day.

His son, Jacob Amaya, was about an hour away from making his MLB debut on Sunday for the Miami Marlins against the Washington Nationals. It immediately made him think back to his late father, Frank Amaya, who spent time in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ minor-league system in the 1950s and who died in May 2016.

The moment, fittingly, came on Father’s Day. Robert and his oldest son Anthony discussed the significance of the timing on their ride to the ballpark after their cross-country flight landed about two-and-a-half hours before first pitch.

“My dad has always played a big part in our baseball journey,” Robert Amaya said. “I wish he was here for it.”

Robert did what he could to keep his composure, but nothing was going to take away the joy, the excitement, and, yes, the tears that came on Sunday as he watched his youngest son take the latest and biggest step thus far of living out his dream.

Amaya’s debut was nothing short of a success. He went 1 for 3 with an RBI fielder’s choice, a stolen base and a run scored while playing six innings at shortstop in the Marlins’ 4-2, series-sweeping win over the Nationals to cap a three-city road trip and move Miami to 41-31 on the season — the first time the Marlins have been 10 games over .500 since 2011.

Afterward, MLB’s newest player connected with his family on the field.

It’s pretty easy to guess what happened then.

“A lot of tears, for sure,” said Amaya, the Marlins’ ninth-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline who was acquired from the Los Angeles Dodgers on Jan. 11 for veteran shortstop Miguel Rojas. “A lot of tears of enjoyment. I saw him when I got that hit and pointed to him. They were going crazy, as expected, for sure.”

Amaya’s call-up came after he became one of the Marlins’ more consistent bats in the minor leagues to start the season. In 58 games with Triple A Jacksonville, Amaya hit .278 with a .818 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, nine home runs, 10 doubles, two triples, 35 RBI and 33 runs scored.

That is in addition to his strong defense, which manager Skip Schumaker said during spring training was already big-league ready.

“Not surprised to see him up here this year,” Marlins general manager Kim Ng said. “Thought we’d see him at some point. It’s great for him and great for us that he’s able to contribute this early.”

And Amaya didn’t waste time making an impact. He opened scoring in the second inning Sunday with an RBI fielder’s choice and promptly stole second base.

In the fourth, he recorded his first hit with a single to left field against Patrick Corbin and moved to second on a throwing error from Stone Garrett. Amaya tagged and moved to third base on a Bryan De La Cruz sacrifice fly and then scored on a Jorge Soler RBI single.

Amaya is the second player in Marlins history to record a hit, RBI, run scored and stolen base in his first career game. The other is Jerar Encarnacion, who coincidentally did so last year on Father’s Day — June 19, 2022, at the New York Mets.

“A lot of nerves for sure going into my first at-bat,” said Amaya, who gave the ball from his first hit to his dad postgame and plans to give him his batting gloves from the game as well. “Walking up, my legs were a little shaky. I looked down and looked up again and it kind of faded away. I was able to settle in pretty quickly.”

It was a culmination of a dream that started when Amaya was 6 years old when he would be out at the fields with his dad and brother. Robert would run the kids through old-school drills like his dad did for him, including fielding groundballs without a glove.

“If you can field a ball with no glove,” Robert said, “you can field it with one.”

Anthony, four years older than Amaya, likes to reminisce about his brother’s work ethic all the way back to the Little League days. Amaya would hit home runs during games and then the two of them would go to the street afterward and field groundballs.

“I’m hitting rockets at him,” Anthony said, “and he’s snagging them. He goes inside and says ‘Dad, he’s hitting them too hard.’ The funny thing is he was always catching them. He was never not catching them.”

Amaya eventually started playing — and out-performing — kids older than him when he was about 12 years old. The journey continued through high school before the Dodgers eventually picked him in the 11th round of the 2017 MLB Draft out of West Covina (Calif.) South Hills High.

Almost six years to the day after being drafted, Amaya made it to the big leagues.

“It’s crazy,” Amaya said. “You kind of have a sense that it will happen, but when it does, it’s a whirlwind. ... Just trying to wrap my head around it.”

The goal now is to stay up in the big leagues.

With regular third baseman Jean Segura on the injured list for at least another week with a left hamstring strain, Schumaker said Joey Wendle will receive the bulk of the starts at shortstop, while Jon Berti, who had been platooning at shortstop with Wendle, will be the team’s primary third baseman for the time being.

Amaya will be used as a defensive replacement and spot starter against left-handed pitching, like he was in his debut on Sunday.

“He’s definitely confident out there,” Schumaker said. “He doesn’t scare. A good debut for him.”

An emotional one for him and his family, too.

“We’ve seen this kid work since he was 6 years old, never thinking it would go this far but always knowing it could be a possibility for him,” Anthony said. “It’s just so big for our family. My brother’s in the Majors. It’s very big for our household and for the Amaya family.”