he was pretty well-regarded and participated in the MLB Draft Combine so there was upside there for sure. But he just seemed a bit overmatched against ACC pitching with too much swing and miss and really struggled against lefties. When he got such little playing time early in the season when Cooke was going through his massive slump, I figured that didn't bode well for his prospects going into next year. My guess is the coaching staff told him they couldn't guarantee him a starting spot and/or told him he would be a backup and he decided to look for a more prominent role somewhere else. We'll definitely need to bring in a transfer catcher with experience to compete with Oxendine and Munoz for the starting role and give us three options at catcher. I believe this will be the first or one of the first times in the Szefc era where we'll be bringing in a transfer catcher as we have had a pretty good run of developing high school catchers.

last. Looks like they have a catcher coming in with the 2026 class, but feels like something they are going to be pursuing in the portal/JUCO.

First base was an unsettled position until Ethan Gibson (unexpectedly) settled there, and the fact that French apparently didn't get much consideration registered with me. As for Gibson, I swear to you it mighta gone like this one day at practice: "Hey, Ethan! ... No, not you, that Ethan! (*Points.*) ... You ever played first base? .... Try on this mitt."