Buckeye Bound: 2026 baseball commit Jeffrey Claycomb talks Ohio State, Justin Haire

COLUMBUS – Ohio State baseball is off to a bit of a rocky start in year one of the Justin Haire era. There is still a lot of belief that Haire and his staff can turn the Buckeyes around, however.

One of the Haire’s biggest believers is 2026 catcher commit Jeffrey Claycomb. The Rowlett (Texas) standout committed to the Buckeyes over Arizona State and Kansas State in September, 2024.

Lettermen Row recently caught up with Claycomb about why he chose Ohio State for this edition of ‘Buckeye Bound’, a weekly conversation with prospects committed to the Scarlet & Gray to play sports other than football.

“Well, honestly, it was meeting Coach Haire and Coach [Joe] Holcomb,” Claycomb told Lettermen Row. “It started with Coach Holcomb first giving me that call on August 30th then I realized that he knows what he’s talking about. He came from a big winning program from Campbell University, top 25 program for the past eight years, and that just says a lot about them. Then I see that when I went on my visit there, I saw that they were trying to turn Ohio State around and make it into a winning Big Ten program.

It may take Haire and his coaching staff some time to turn the Buckeyes around. Ohio State is excited about its 2026 class, however, which includes Claycomb.

“I saw that they are really, really looking forward to my class and the years to come,” Claycomb said. “I know that they’re excited. And the biggest thing is they’re Christian men that have deep values and that’s something I really appreciate, that part was probably the final nail in the coffin for me.”

Haire and the aforementioned Joe Holcomb both have a long track record of developing catchers, something that stands out to Claycomb.

“Coach Holcomb talking about Patrick Bailey and that guy, just learning about how they do and how they treat their catchers. That was another big factor for me is how they treated their catchers. I mean, history shows what they’ve done in the past and they do it. They get them up to the league and that’s definitely the place where I wanna be.”

The 6-foot, 197-pound Claycomb is one of five commitments for Ohio State in the 2026 class. He is the only position player, however. The rest of Buckeyes class consists of four pitchers (two right-handers, two left-handers) and all four are from the state of Ohio.