NIL deals have created a new generation of college sports, causing transfer portals to become a madhouse for sports across the board. That is exactly what we witnessed in baseball this offseason.
Following the conclusion of the 2024 college baseball season, players wasted no time hopping in the portal. With Opening Weekend upon us, let’s break down my top three transfer classes heading into the 2025 season.
Texas A&M
After their disappointing loss in the 2024 College World Series Championship, a storm of Aggies took to social media to announce their departures from Texas A&M. The stress filled couple of weeks for Aggie fans came to an end when the group announced they aren’t leaving. Inside sources believe this announcement stemmed from the hiring of new head coach, Michael Earley.
Headlining that group is number one overall college draft prospect for 2025, Jace LaViolette. The 6 ‘5 outfielder has effortless power from the left side and is looking to hit his way into the first overall draft spot in the 2025 Amauter Draft. LaViolette produced a .287/.414/.632 slashline along with team leading 21 jacks.
The rising sophomores, Gavin Grahovac and Caden Sorrell, also followed along heading back to College Station. These two were big parts of the lineup last season, both landing on the Freshman All SEC list, Grahovac even coming home with the SEC Freshman of the Year hardware.
A huge break for the Aggies lineup was getting Hayden Schott back as well. Schott was unsure of his future in baseball, but after getting cleared for another year of eligibility, he’s back. The grad-student led the team in batting average last season. This surrounding cast for Laviolette makes up arguably the best heart of the lineup.
As you can see, the core of this stacked lineup is back and ready to produce. Kendall Rogers, co-founder of d1baseball.com, had high praise for the Aggies on the TexAgs talk show, predicting that not one player bats under .300 for Coach Earley this season. That may be a bit of an overstatement, but one through nine, this lineup is stacked and if any team in college baseball has the potential to accomplish that, it’s this one.
The big additions for the lineup this winter was Gavin Kash out of Texas Tech and Wyatt Henseler from UPenn. Kash will likely man down right field on opening day for the squad. The senior corner guy slashed .300/.365/.561 for Texas Tech last season. He was slotted as a preseason All American before the 2024 season and I think some people tend to forget that. He is a power bat that makes his presence known in every lineup he has been in so far, and that’s what A&M is hoping to get out of him.
Infielder Gavin Henseler turned tides tearing up the Ivy League last season. He launched a league record 22 homeruns along with a .360 batting average and 56 RBIs. Henseler was actually already committed to the Aggies before the start of last season, however, Ivy League rules forced him to play through his final season there, and was voted unanimous league MVP to cap it off.
Along with two additions to the lineup, Jamal George and Benjamin Royo. Both coming from smaller division 1 schools, it will be interesting to see how these young players handle the SEC.
The Aggies also picked up some depth for their rotation, adding Clayton Freshcorn, a solid right handed pitcher from the local Mclennan Community College. Freshcorn was listed as the 12th most impactful JUCO transfer pitcher. Also, Myles Patton, 6 ‘3 pitcher hailing from Long Beach State had a powerful 122 strikeouts in 105.2 innings pitched in his career there. He could find himself with a starting job if he can limit bat to ball.
This transfer class is a unique one on this list, due to the fact their transfer class was basically just all their returning players who took that little hiatus in the portal and realized their true home has been and will be at Texas A&M.
LSU
Jay Johnson’s Tigers have had quite the interesting past two seasons. Having arguably one of, if not the greatest college baseball team of all time with his 2023 squad, then falling so heartbreakingly short of Omaha last season. However, the pieces started to come together for the team and they started playing real ball again. If not eliminated in that Super Regional, we could’ve had back-to-back natty champs. Now, let’s look at how Jay Johnson’s team is preparing for the 2024 season.
Even with what seemed like a down year, the Tigers were nothing short of successful in this year’s draft, having nine players drafted. That is a huge load of players to lose, along with four top high school prospects who were snagged up by MLB teams, including the ninth overall pick Konnor Griffin. Don’t let this take away from the fact that they were still named to have the best new coming freshman class. They also fell victim to the transfer portal, losing big arm Cam Johnson, a player who was highly touted out of high school that just couldn’t find his rhythm in Baton Rouge. Catcher Brady Neal and pitcher Thatcher Hurd, who were a part of that legendary 2023 team, are also trying their luck in the transfer portal.
Losing this amount of talent forced Jay Johnson to go out and get some new faces for his ballclub. That’s exactly what he did, bringing in a boatload of experienced players. According to ncaa.com, LSU brought in four of the top 15 most impactful pitcher transfers. Biggest being Anthony Eyanson, who dominated the Big West last season, limiting batters to only .190 batting average against. Eyanson is looking to step right into that Friday night starting job. Joining him in the rotation is Wofford’s ace Zac Cowan. The workhorse pitched in 17 games for the Terriers, spanning across 110 innings, punching out 124 batters along the way. Chandler Dorsey and Deven Sheerin will also be two new additions to help strengthen the ‘pen.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Tigers added junior Daniel Dickinson from Utah Valley. Dickinson, recently named a Third-Team Preseason All-American, batted .369 with 19 dingers last season, earning him First-Team All-WAC honors. Dickinson landed at the two spot on d1baseball’s top 100 impact transfers. How he handles the transition to SEC ball could play a very crucial role on this team’s success. Dickinson, along with other returning Preseason All-American Jared Jones, will be two huge staples in this lineup for Jay Johnson.
Another top 100 transfer heading down to Baton Rouge in the spring is Luis Hernandez from Indiana State. Hernandez bat adds much needed depth to this roster. Baseball America listed him as the 32nd most impactful transfer.
These boys are hungry and eager to get theirs back, and make a run at Omaha.
Tennessee
Last and certainly not least, the reigning, defending National Champions, the Tennessee Volunteers. After having most likely the greatest draft class in Tennessee baseball history, the Vols and Tony Vitello went out and got their guys, preparing for another run at the title.
Quality over quantity was definitely the thought process for the Vols this offseason, bringing in two new pieces that are going to slide right into the lineup. Starting with Ole Miss transfer Andrew Fischer. Fischer could easily be considered the most improved player in college baseball following his performance last season. The physical third baseman jumped up 42 spots in the latest college draft prospects list for d1baseball.com. Fischer blasted 20 homeruns as a sophomore in Oxford and has the power potential and confidence levels to launch 30 plus this spring. Look for him to make an instant impact on campus.
Additionally, the Vols will be adding Gavin Kilen to the roster this year. The junior infielder hit an outstanding .330 with nine long balls to tag along last year with the Louisville Cardinals. Kilen will likely fill the hole at second base for Tony V and the Vols.
Fischer and Kilen cashed in at four and six on d1baseball.com’s top 15 impact transfer hitters.
The Vols also got a first baseman from Niagara University, Eric Rataczak for depth. After losing your entire infield besides your shortstop due to the MLB draft, this is exactly the kind of transfer portal Coach Vitello was looking for.
On the pitching side of things, they acquired Liam Doyle and Tanner Franklin. Liam Doyle came over from Ole Miss, almost in a package like deal with Fischer. Last year with the Rebels, the power left hander had 84 strikeouts in 55 innings pitched. Doyle could be seen as the guy for the Vols on Friday nights this season, although a near 6 ERA last season leaves some question marks. However, don’t be surprised if you hear his name getting called on day one of this year’s draft, as the ceiling for this left hander is very high. Pitching coach Frank Anderson has done a great job of helping flamethrowers hone in and control their powers, hopefully this will be the case with Doyle as well.
Adding more arms in the pen, the Vols added the 6 ‘5, 240 lbs, mammoth of a right hander in Tanner Franklin. Coming from Kennesaw State, Franklin punched out 43 batters in 27.1 innings of work last year. The junior features a fastball topping at near triple digits and a hard cutter. If Franklin can cut down on his walk rates, he could be a real threat late game for Tennessee this year.
With all this being said, the 2025 National Championship is still anyone’s to win. As we speak, the fields are being raked, chalk is being lined, players are getting warmed, and it will soon be time to say, “Play Ball!”
