Tracking Florida baseball’s 2023 transfer portal movement

The 2023 college baseball season has come to an end, and that means it’s time to open up our transfer total tracker to follow all of the moves made by the Florida Gators over the next few months.

The hope is always to bring in more talent than you lose, but transfer departures tend to exceed additions at a school like Florida thanks to elite classes of recruits coming in each year. Florida’s 2023 recruiting class is no exception, forcing aging talent to seek new options.

O’Sullivan has a pretty solid track record recruiting kids from the portal. He got Hurston Waldrep (Southern Miss) to come to Gainesville last offseason, and his success should make for an easy pitch (no pun intended) to any players on the fence about joining up with the Gators. Of course, BT Riopelle’s (Coast Carolina) success helped warm Sully up to the transfer portal.

The list will alternate between outgoing and incoming players until it is impossible, and high-profile transfers will be listed closer to the top.

Outgoing: INF Deric Fabian

Fabian might be the most surprising departure so far. He played in 46 games as a true freshman, including 43 starts alongside his brother, Jud, who is now with the Baltimore Orioles organization. He slashed .289/.321/.447 with four home runs and 22 runs batted in last year, but the emergence of Cade Kurland at second base left Fabian without a starting spot on the field.

He only made his way into 22 games for Florida this year, including just 10 starts. He slashed .289/.386/.447 with six of his 11 hits coming against the SEC. With Kurland set to return and Alabama transfer third baseman Colby Shelton coming over to the Swamp, it’s smarter for Fabian to see an opportunity elsewhere than risk another year on the bench.

All of Fabian’s metrics point towards a second chance with a competitive school. His wRC+ this year was 106 compared to a league average of 100. His batting average on balls in play (BABIP) is .360 and his walk rate of 11.4% is above average.

Incoming: UCLA RHP Kelly Austin

With nearly 30 starts and 159 2/3 innings under his belt at UCLA, Kelly Austin has proven himself as an effective strike-thrower that’s generating more swing-and-miss as he develops. The big question is whether he’ll play a role in Florida’s weekend rotation following the transfer.

If Brandon Neely moves back to being a starter, Austin could pick up the closer role for Florida and still get good innings in the SEC.

Austin’s fastball comes in around 90-91 mph. It’s not the typical Florida heater, but it has some arm-side run that fools batters. Mixing in a changeup often and a breaker that’s getting more consistent. He calls it a slider, so we’ll go with that.

He boosted his freshman strikeout rate from 22.8% to 29.5% as a sophomore, and he also crossed the century mark with 104 punchouts while walking 34.

Austin will need to work on that 9.9% walk rate from last year before the SEC schedule comes around, but the rest of his metrics are favorable. He’s turning into a ground-ball pitcher (33.9 to 48.1 GB%) and giving up fewer line drives (18.8 to 16.7 LD%). His SIERA is 2.92, which is excellent, and his 3.39 ERA isn’t too shabby either.

He spent his first two years at Orange Coast College and played in the West Coast League before becoming a Bruin. He leaves UCLA as a member of the 2023 Pac-12 All-Conference Team.

Outgoing: RHP Yoel Tejeda Jr. (Florida State)

From a talent perspective, Yoel Tejeda Jr. might be the biggest loss Florida suffers in the transfer portal this offseason. His 94-96 mph fastball (T97) is paired with a 91-93 two-seamer with some sink. As far as offspeed pitches, Tejeda throws a slider that comes in around 84 mph and a mid-80s changeup.

Drafted in the 19th round by the Pittsburgh Pirates out of North Broward High in Coconut Creek, Florida, Tejeda served as Florida’s midweek starter for most of the season. He struggled to locate his first pitch and often fell behind batters, but there’s clearly some more stuff to work with and most coaches will take the time with a true 6-foot-8-incher that is still developing physically.

Although the numbers weren’t great for Tejeda at UF, he could wind up as a major piece of Florida State’s rebuild. Some time with the Wareham Gateman in the Cape Cod League should help him take the next step.

Incoming: Alabama INF Colby Shelton

Colby Shelton had the highest wRC+ of any Alabama regular last season and immediately became one of the top transfer portal targets in the country once he left the Crimson Tide. Who wouldn’t want a lefty bat with an OPS of 1.143?

With Josh Rivera headed to the pros, Shelton could shift from third base to shortstop. It somewhat depends on what’s next for Colby Halter, Florida’s everyday third baseman. He’s draft eligible, but it’s entirely possible that Halter comes back for another year to boost his draft stock. It worked for Rivera, so why not him?

Halter is too good defensively to move from third, and Shelton might welcome the move to short — a position he played in high school. If Halter gets drafted and takes the deal, Florida could add another portal infielder.

Outgoing: RHP Tyler Nesbitt

Tyler Nesbitt is leaving the program after four years, but one of those was the COVID season and another was spent recovering from Tommy John surgery. He made 20 appearances for Florida in 2022, striking out 29 batters over 33 1/3 innings with a 4.59 ERA.

Nesbitt lowered that number to 2.96 over 11 appearances in 2023, including three starts. His metrics suggest some regression since the surgery, but Nesbitt has enough SEC experience to make him an attractive transfer piece.

Incoming: Coastal Carolina C Tanner Garrison

Tanner Garrison is following in the footsteps of BT Riopelle by transferring from Coastal Carolina to Florida. An above-average bat at catcher is hard to come by in the portal, and Garrison isn’t going to demand a spot in the everyday lineup, although he can definitely compete for one.

Losing Rene Lastres and Salvy Alvarez (more on them in a bit) forced the Gators to the portal, and Garrison is as good of a “depth” addition as a team could ask for.

Outgoing: C Rene Lastres

Rene Lastres got some at-bats during midweek games while at Florida, but he only finished his first two seasons of college ball with 33 plate appearances. That’s simply not enough for a player once ranked No. 31 in the country by Perfect Game.

Lastres has a ton of power in his bat and needs to find a school that will let him start regularly. Moving out of the Power Five might guarantee that, but Lastres can compete at the highest level. A little more patience at the plate will go a long way, and that should come with more plate appearances.

Outgoing: C Salvador Alvarez (Florida SW)

Salvy Alvarez did not play as a true freshman at Florida and will leave the program to play at Florida Southwestern College. A former top-500 player nationally, according to Perfect Game, Alvarez is hoping to thrive at the junior college level. That could get him back to a Division I program quickly.

Outgoing: OF Matt Prevesk (UCF)

Matt Prevesk is headed to UCF after two years at Florida.

His .286 batting average doesn’t seem too alarming, but his metrics don’t paint a pretty picture. There’s very little patience at the plate (4.4% walk rate) and his wRC+ of 76 is well below league average at the plate. Defensively, he’ll likely stay in right field but will eventually turn into a designated hitter.

Prevesk might fare well in the Big 12. There’s still plenty of talent in that conference, and UCF is a rising power in the talent-rich state of Florida.

Outgoing: LHP Carsten Finnvold

What Carsten Finnvold did on June 5, 2022, will never be forgotten. He came into the game with the bases loaded in the first inning and threw nine innings for Florida in regional play. It kept the Gators alive for a few more days and is one of the all-time pitching performances in program history.

Unfortunately, one big game doesn’t guarantee much at Florida, and Finnvold threw one (rough) inning in 2023 for the Orange and Blue. It’s hard to blame him for leaving the program after two years and little to show.

At least Finnvold proved that a mid-80s fastball from the left side can do some damage at the highest level of college baseball. Legend.

Outgoing: RHP Anthony Ursitti (FGCU)

Much like Finnvold, Anthony Ursitti had a few nice moments in 2022 and then didn’t pitch in 2023 for the Gators. He’ll head to FGCU, which is known for power hitting and a relatively small field.

Ursitti’s some run to fly ball percentage is already 25, meaning a quarter of the fly balls he gives up leave the yard. That’s either incredibly unlucky or a product of bad pitching. It sounds like FGCU is banking on it being the former, but there’s really not enough data to tell. Ursitti could wind up a completely different pitcher with different coaches.

FGCU is the right place to get innings and figure it out.

Read more

[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=1369]

Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

Story originally appeared on Gators Wire