Pro Pokes: Perrin's Rewarding Journey From The Pokes To The Pros

Jon Perrin was a pitcher at Oklahoma State from 2012-15 who helped lead the Cowboys to their first-ever Big 12 Conference regular season championship and an NCAA Super Regional in 2014, a season that also saw him named an All-Big 12 First Team performer.

In 65 career games in an OSU uniform, Perrin went 18-9 with a 3.18 ERA and recorded 200 strikeouts in 240 1/3 innings pitched.

Perrin was also a star in the classroom, graduating with a degree in history in May 2015 and being named an Academic All-Big 12 First Team performer three times.

A two-time Major League Baseball Draft pick during his time in Stillwater, Perrin signed with Milwaukee after the Brewers drafted him in the 27^th round in 2015.

Perrin played five professional seasons, pitching in 98 career games and reaching the Triple-A level in 2018, before retiring in 2020.

Now back living in his native Kansas, Perrin is a financial advisor for WaterFront Advisors in Overland Park, Kan.

You spent five seasons in pro baseball and reached the Triple A level. How gratifying was it to have a successful pro career and what made you decide baseball was over for you?
JP: Getting the opportunity to play professional baseball for five years was an amazing experience. I was fortunate enough to have a career that included stops in the US, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. I got to meet so many awesome people and see all kinds of unique places that I never would have gotten the chance to go to if it weren't for playing professional baseball.

I knew baseball was over for me at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. I was a free agent at the time, and I had been in contact with the Nationals about a potential late arrival to spring training, but they had kind of gone silent on me. I had an offer in hand to return to the independent ball team I had played for the prior year in Kansas City, but I was on the fence about returning to indy ball and had been interviewing for jobs during the offseason. Once the pandemic shut down pro sports, I immediately saw the writing on the wall for my career and decided to accept a job offer as financial advisor with my current firm, WaterFront Advisors in Overland Park, Kansas.

What have you done since retiring from pro ball?
JP: I started my investment career while still playing pro ball – I earned my license during the offseason between the 2017-2018 seasons and worked as a remote employee for Satya Investment Management during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Since retiring I have been working as a financial advisor full time for WaterFront.

In addition to my day job, I have continued to stay around the game of baseball in a couple of different roles. I work as a pitching instructor for Natural Baseball Academy in Olathe, Kansas, and ran their 14u travel team program for the 2021 spring and summer season. I serve as the director of the financial guidance program for More Than Baseball, an organization that provides support and resources to minor league baseball players. I write a monthly newsletter and run educational webinars for the program to help current and former professional baseball players learn about sound money management and financial planning.

I am currently enrolled in the master's degree program at the University of Missouri, working towards a degree in financial planning and earning my Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. I was able to do this thanks in large part to the fact I was the recipient of the Big 12 Conference Gautt Postgraduate Scholarship in 2015.

What is your role with WaterFront Advisors and describe what you do for the company.
I am a financial advisor at WaterFront. I work directly with clients as their main point of contact with the firm on a day-to-day basis. I work with each client on managing their investment portfolios and building out comprehensive financial plans to help them reach their financial goals.

How did being a student-athlete at OSU prepare you for life after college?
JP: Being an athlete at OSU did so much to prepare me for life after college, both in terms of playing professional baseball and for the "real" world.
Having resources like Josh (Holliday) and Rob (Walton) who have been in and around the professional game themselves gave me a very realistic look at what pro ball is like and what it takes to compete at that level. In all our pitchers' meetings, Rob would constantly hold us to a higher standard. He preached to us that we if we can execute at a professional level while still in college, college hitters didn't have a chance against us. That was the mentality that we had as a staff in our day-to-day work, and he was 100% right. One of the best compliments I ever received in my first year of pro ball was that I was "advanced" and had a "pro mentality." That is a direct reflection of the culture and mentality that was instilled in us within the program by the coaching staff.

Now in the professional world, the same mentality still comes into play. All the things that lead to success on the college baseball diamond – hard work, discipline, time management, and what Josh likes to call an "ownership mentality" – have helped me to succeed in my professional career as well.

What are your future goals as a business professional?
JP: Short term, my goals are simply to keep working hard each day to grow and scale up my book of business. Given my background, current and former professional athletes are a market that I work with a lot. It is fun for me to help solve the unique financial challenges that come with pro athletes. I also really enjoy working with people who may be done with sports, but like myself are using the lessons they learned in sports to have success in their professional careers. Now, with the shift in the NIL landscape, I hope that college athletes could become a part of that as well.

Long term, my goal is to be a partner or owner of an investment management firm. And to get my family's name on a building somewhere on OSU's campus. My mother Susan also went to OSU – Shoutout to her and all her sisters from Gamma Phi Beta Pledge Class of 1980!

Favorite OSU baseball memory?
JP: Two that really will stick with me, both from 2014. One team, one individual.

Winning the conference championship in 2014 will go down as my favorite memory from my entire playing career. Clinching the title against OU in front of a sellout crowd in Tulsa made it even more fun! I remember that a couple players from OU had been talking in the media before the series about how they wanted to beat us to ruin our chances of winning the Big 12 – safe to say we did not take that lightly.

I pitched the first game of the series, and we got the win in OKC to clinch at least a share of the Big 12 title. The next day we go to Tulsa on a Friday night, and the atmosphere was absolutely electric. My former roommate, Tyler Buffett, Trey Cobb and I were always giving Buff grief that year for not getting past the fifth inning in his starts. There was just something different about him in his pre-game pen that night. We kind of looked at each other after Buff finished his pen and were like "He wants this one, tonight is his night." Sure enough, he threw a gem of a game, it was seven scoreless I believe. Then we walked it off in the ninth when Saul Saxon knocked in Craig McConaughy. That memory of Craig crossing the plate and everybody rushing the field was such an incredible feeling. Everybody was out taking pictures and shaking hands with fans after the game for a long time. I swear there were still a few thousand people wearing orange in the stands an hour after the game was over.

Individually, it was throwing complete game shutouts against both Kansas and Kansas State in the same year. I am from Kansas, two of my high school teammates played at KU, but I was never recruited by either school, not so much as a phone call. So for me personally that was extremely satisfying to go dominate both the teams from my home state.

Anything else you want to add about your OSU experience on and/or off the field?
JP: I walked on to the OSU campus as an 18-year-old kid and walked off campus as a 22-year-old man with a degree in my hand and an opportunity to go play professional baseball. That would not have been possible without the tremendous support I received from the coaching staff. Josh, Rob and Rolo (Roland Fanning) were all on staff when I played, and it is amazing to see them all back in Stillwater continuing to lead the program to new heights. A pair of my former teammates, Vic Romero and Jon Littell, are also on staff. I think that speaks volumes to the culture of OSU baseball that guys are coming back to the program to be a part of the staff after they are done playing.

One last shoutout must go to Athletic Trainer Eli Williams. Eli has been there since my sophomore year in 2012-2013 and is one of the best in the business. I had offseason elbow surgery in the fall of my senior year, and he was the one that oversaw my rehab program and got me back to 100% for my senior year. Every morning for four months he was there before the sun had come up grinding it out with me to help get me healthy. Without him, there is no way my right elbow holds up pain free for another five years of pitching post-surgery.

I will be in town for homecoming weekend. To my fellow alumni, see you at America's greatest Homecoming celebration! Can't wait to see O'Brate Stadium for the first time in person. Go Pokes!

-- Jon Perrin, OSU c/o 2015

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Pro Pokes: Perrin's Rewarding Journey From The Pokes To The Pros

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