- Ty Evans decided to return to the University of Florida for his senior baseball season after an injury cut his junior season short.
- Florida will need to replace the production of Jac Caglianone, who was drafted in the first round by the Kansas City Royals.
- Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan believes the Gators have added enough talent through the transfer portal to compensate for Caglianone’s departure.
Ty Evans could have started his professional baseball career after a breakthrough junior season for Florida baseball in 2024.
Evans started 49 of 50 in right field for the Florida Gators, batting .316 with 13 home runs and 43 RBIs before going down for the season with a broken wrist after crashing into the wall at Condron Family Ballpark on May 11 against Kentucky.
Instead, Evans opted to return to UF for his senior season to help the No. 10 Gators try to reach the College World Series for a third straight year.
“It felt like it kind of got taken away from me,” Evans said of the injury. “I don’t know if that’s an ‘everything happens for a reason’ type of thing, but I would say probably a little bit in terms of me wanting to come back for another season.”
Evans is one of a handful of MLB Draft-eligible players who opted to return to UF, a list that includes shortstop Colby Shelton (who was drafted in the 20th round by the Washington Nationals), catcher Luke Heyman and pitcher Pierce Coppola, who will start the final game of UF’s season-opening series against Air Force on Sunday.
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“At the end of the day, playing college baseball is a lot better than playing minor league baseball,” Coppola said. “So, coming back to Florida and playing as a family again for another year felt a little more special than just rushing myself or ourselves into pro ball.”
That experience could prove valuable as No. 10 Florida opens its season Friday against Air Force at Condron Family Ballpark (6:30 p.m).
“Getting those guys back was huge for us, from not just, you know, all their experience, but their leadership,” said Florida baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan, who has guided UF to nine CWS trips in 17 seasons. “And over the years, there’s really three things that probably factor into having success throughout the whole year. One is, you know, you have to have talent. Number two, you have to have leadership, and all four of those guys are giving that to us right now.”
How Florida baseball will compensate losing slugger Jac Caglianone
Evans, Shelton and Heyman will compose a trio in the middle of the order for UF, which combined for 49 home runs and 151 RBIs. UF also brings back slugging catcher/designated hitter Brody Donay (.246, 14 HR, 32 RBIs) and second baseman Cade Kurland (.245, 14 HR. 44 RBIs), who socked double digits in home runs despite playing though most of last season with a broken finger.
Caglianone put together the best offensive season in Florida baseball history in 2024, batting .419 with 35 home runs and 72 RBIs before being drafted in the first round (sixth overall) by the Kansas City Royals in last July’s amateur draft.
“You’re not gonna be able to replace Jac with one person,” O’Sullivan said.
O’Sullivan attacked the transfer portal with balancing the lineup with power, gap hitting and speed in mind. UF added Stetson transfer Kyle Jones to play centerfield and Miami transfer Blake Cyr to play leftfield. Jones stole 23 bases for Stetson last year, while Cyr socked 24 home runs and 15 doubles over two seasons at Miami.
“To be successful in the SEC, you have to have guys with good arms on a mound, bottom line, and you have to have power bats,” O’Sullivan said. “And in doing so, when you play well in the SEC, it puts you in position to host regionals and host Supers, and it gives you a better chance to get to your ultimate goal, the World Series out in Omaha.
“But the truth of the matter is the field plays so much different out there, and you look up and you’re playing an 8 o’clock game and the wind’s blowing in straight from center field at 15 to 20 miles an hour, that could really stifle your offense if you don’t have other ways to score runs. So hopefully we’ve added a couple of guys in the lineup that will give us a bit more opportunity to score rather than the three-run homer.”
Evans said he’s looking forward to playing a style that can put pressure on opposing defenses.
“Being able to change the way we play a little bit, if the wind’s blowing in, hit and run, move some guys over, steal some bags, finding different ways to score other than hitting home runs, that can be huge for us,” Evans said.
Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
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