Arizona baseball adds outfielder for its 2026 roster

The 2025 college baseball season is well over and Arizona’s success getting to the College World Series, which featured a Super Regional 2-1 series win over No. 5 seed North Carolina is a massive stepping stone and tone setter for the program moving forward under head coach Chip Hale.

Like we have talked about before, Hale has done a great job of keeping the talent on the roster following the trip to the CWS. Outside of graduating players and players taking the next step to the MLB draft, Arizona will have key players returning, making for an interesting 2026 season.

The starting rotation will have talent coming back in Smith Bailey and Owen Kramkowski set to take on bigger roles after ending the season on a high note with the two combining for 11 innings of work in the CWS and struck out 11 batters while giving up just five runs.

Even with things going in the right direction, that hasn’t stopped Hale from looking across the country and seeing what players the Wildcats can snag in the portal to improve the 2026 roster.

Late Saturday afternoon, the Wildcats went into the transfer portal and landed Oregon State center fielder Carson McEntire, who spent his freshman season with the Beavers where he batted .238 in 26 games hitting four home runs and 10 RBI.

Where McEntire shined was in the Super Regionals where against Florida State he was able to knock in a home run while driving in two RBI helping the Beavers advance to the CWS.

Before McEntire, Hale was able to get two other players out of the portal in infielders Tyler Bickers, who hit .369 the previous season for Milwaukee. Then there was the addition of catcher/infielder Beau Sylvester giving the Wildcats some needed depth.

In all, Arizona has lost nine players to the portal, but none of those pieces started any games for the Wildcats and were looking to go to a program where they would receive more playing time.

It’s a long way til the 2026 season and the team will go through fall camp to see what they have on the roster before playing any meaningful game. So, there could be a chance that Hale will still be looking to add to his roster.

Please be sure to let us know what you think about the addition of Carson McEntire and what it could mean for the program and roster as they get ready for the 2026 season. To do so, follow us on our X account by clicking on the link.