In the modern landscape of college baseball, few things have had as profound an impact as the transfer portal.
What was once a tool for athletes seeking new opportunities has now become a cornerstone of roster-building for programs at every level. Coaches are no longer only recruiting high school talent but instead scouring the portal and hunting for athletes who can make an immediate impact or have the potential to grow into elite performers.
This shift in strategy has fundamentally altered how college pitchers are assessed. While some transfers are familiar, proven commodities, others enter with unpolished records, offering a tantalizing glimpse of untapped potential.
The art of scouting has evolved to include not only those who have already proven themselves but also those with the raw ingredients to develop into the next big thing as coaches leverage advanced analytics to unearth hidden gems who could reshape their programs.
“We effectively attempt to categorize players into two groups: proven contributors and analytical standouts,” one Power 4 recruiting coordinator explained to Baseball America. “The former is relatively straightforward, but the latter, without giving away too much, is basically players who might have struggled on the surface but could be really, really good with some minor tweaks or just more time and maturity.”
Several players who fall into the latter category are making significant impacts this spring.
Tennessee ace Liam Doyle posted a 5.73 ERA with 84 strikeouts against 21 walks over 55 innings at Ole Miss last season, despite possessing one of the most dominant fastballs in the nation. Now, he has arguably become the most sought-after pitcher in the country, finishing non-conference play with a 0.44 ERA, 47 strikeouts and just five walks in 20.1 innings.
Wake Forest’s Friday night starter, Logan Lunceford, completed his sophomore season at Missouri in 2024 with a 6.97 ERA, 53 strikeouts and 26 walks in 60.2 innings. Through four appearances in 2025, however, the righthander boasts a 1.80 ERA with 42 strikeouts and only eight walks in 20 innings. Like Doyle, Lunceford throws an electric fastball, which Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter remarked “didn’t get the results it should have.”
“We believe there’s a lot more to tap into,” Walter said in January. “The numbers are very promising, and we’re working with him to ensure his results align with his potential.”
The list of similar players goes on.
In addition to Lunceford, Florida State’s Wes Mendes, Auburn’s Samuel Dutton, Charlotte’s Blake Gillespie, Oregon’s Jason Reitz, Hawaii’s Liam O’Brien, Florida State’s Evan Chrest and Dallas Baptist’s Rian Schwede each posted ERAs exceeding 6.00 with their previous teams in 2024 before transferring.
Mendes, Dutton, Schwede and O’Brien (currently the national leader) now rank among the top 100 Division I players in ERA a month into the 2025 season. Gillespie has already thrown a no-hitter this year, and Reitz has started to find his rhythm, recently grabbing 98 mph with his fastball.
“There’s an unbelievable amount of data available to us now,” said an SEC pitching coach. “You can go get exactly what you think your team needs from the portal, whether that’s a great strike-thrower or someone with an excellent arsenal and some room to grow into it, which you can kind of facilitate a little, or a great reliever profile. That’s why you see so many teams in our league—really even throughout the whole country, honestly—that have all these great arms who haven’t really performed in the past. The level of scouting has increased across the board.”
The demand for proven commodities has likewise surged.
Pitchers such as LSU righthander Anthony Eyanson, Arkansas lefthanders Zach Root and Landon Beidelschies, Texas lefty Jared Spencer, Texas A&M lefty Myles Patton, TCU righty Tommy LaPour, Vanderbilt righty Cody Bowker and Louisville righty Brennyn Cutts had established track records of success before entering the transfer portal, making them some of its most coveted players.
One Power 4 head coach likened such athletes to the college equivalents of top MLB free agents.
“Those are your Juan Sotos or Gerrit Coles or however you want to put it,” he said. “They’re going to cost you the most, but the reality is, those are probably your most important players who enter (the portal) now. Pitching is at a premium in college, so when you can get your hands on someone who has shown that they can do it, they’re valuable. As the transfer portal is this way, those pitchers will always be viewed as premium additions.”
There’s fierce competition to secure them as a result.
“There’s a group of game changers who enter the portal on the mound every year now,” one recruiting coordinator said. “Paul Skenes came from the portal and pitched in the big leagues basically right after he pitched in the College World Series. Hurston Waldrep transferred to Florida and pitched in the big leagues after pitching in the College World Series. We’ll see that more and more.”
The ability to identify and cultivate such players has become one of the most critical skills for recruiting coordinators today. Players like Doyle and Lunceford illustrate the immense potential and importance of this new paradigm while pointing to the future of college baseball on the mound.
As more success stories emerge, more teams are sure to buy in, further solidifying the transfer portal as a crucial part of college baseball’s evolution.
“This is how college athletics works in a nutshell, really,” one coach said. “Something starts working and it becomes the norm, and I think you can say at this point that this is where we’re at with building pitching staffs. There will always be a need for the high school player on the mound, but a lot of the best teams are taking older pitchers and having a lot of success that way. That kind of stuff influences how people think about things.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
