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AJ Gracia (Photo by John Adams/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The ripple effect of Virginia hiring longtime Duke head coach Chris Pollard is underway, and it has immense ramifications for college baseball next season. Star Blue Devils outfielder AJ Gracia, the current No. 8 prospect in our 2026 draft rankings, entered the transfer portal Wednesday morning with a “do not contact” tag.
Former Duke pitching coach Brady Kirkpatrick, hitting coach Eric Tyler, director of recruiting and analytics Brian Sakowski and infielders coach/recruiting coordinator Derek Simmons are all expected to join Pollard at Virginia, although Simmons hasn’t been ruled out as a potential candidate for Duke’s vacant head coaching job. A trio of notable Duke players—Kyle Johnson, Macon Winslow and Sam Harris—were among several members of the roster to quickly enter the transfer portal.
But Gracia is the biggest domino to fall. He hit .293/.449/.558 this season with 10 doubles, 15 home runs and 54 RBIs. Gracia’s production–and midseason adjustments–becomes even more impressive considering he was hitting just .188 through April 3. Gracia made a handful of small tweaks to his stance and operation that paid dividends. The 6-foot-3 outfielder has shown the ability to drive the baseball with authority to all parts of the field to go along with an advanced feel for the barrel and a plus approach.
Now, he becomes the most prominent member of the 2026 class to enter the portal alongside Maryland transfer shortstop Chris Hacopian, who ranks 11th on our 2026 big board.
The impact of Pollard’s departure has also been felt on the recruiting trail. Most notably, righthander Justice De Jong announced his de-commitment. De Jong currently ranks as the No. 107 player in this year’s draft class.
We will update this post with additional Duke-related recruiting news as it unfolds.
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