Updating Mississippi State baseball's transfer portal recruiting efforts

The Bulldogs certainly aren’t done recruiting in the transfer portal. O’Connor’s first batch of transfer commitments came from his former Virginia players and one of their brothers. Those commitments sent the Bulldogs to the top of portal rankings.

Since then, the Bulldogs have received commitments from players with no obvious connection to O’Connor. Securing commitments from Maddox Webb and Jackson Logar gives the Bulldogs a couple of great bullpen arms for next season.

However, Mississippi State isn’t done. The Bulldogs still have a need for a starting shortstop and catcher.

The hope Mississippi State fans have is that former Virginia shortstop Eric Becker will follow O’Connor and some of his teammates to Starkville. Piecing together different bits of news and rumors, it would appear Becker’s top three teams are Mississippi State, Tennessee and Texas.

As the No. 2 overall player in the transfer portal, Becker would be a big addition for each of those teams. But reports have said he’ll take his time to decide and that decision is likely to come before he reports to the USA Collegiate National Team training camp at the end of June.

Another top five rated player from Virginia, Henry Ford, is draft eligible and may choose to go that path. O’Connor was actually asked about retaining drafted players in his first press conference with Starkville media.

“What I talk to them about is between the age of 18 and 21, how do they want to live their life, and what do they look like their development path is,” O’Connor said. “The two paths are different, okay? This path, you choose a coaching staff that every day is going to be a part of their development, and it's going to be the consistency every day and every year in their development until they're eligible for the draft again.”

As far as the other top position of need for Mississippi State, it doesn’t look like the Bulldogs are in the running for Notre Dame’s Carson Tinney. However, with the recent coaching change at Duke, there’s a new top-rated catcher in the portal. Duke’s Macon Winslow entered the transfer portal after coach Chris Pollard accepted O’Connor’s old post at Virginia.

Bringing Winslow to Starkville, instead of him following Pollard to Virginia, would be slightly comical. But if O’Connor wants to make a splash in the school’s rivalry with Ole Miss, former Rebel catcher Campbell Smithwick is in the transfer portal and is ranked in the top 200.

Seton Hall’s Kevin Milewsky is a name to look out for, too.

Mississippi State Baseball Roster Tracker

Outgoing Transfers

RHP Will Passeau (Auburn University at Montgomery)
RHP Eli Walker
RHP Gavin Black
INF Dylan Cupp
INF Lukas Buckner (Coastal Carolina)
LHP Wes Pritchard
RHP Mikhai Grant
OF Landis Davila
OF Michael O'Brien (Arkansas-Little Rock)
OF Nolan Stevens (Oklahoma)
C Jackson Owen
C Steven Spalitta (Louisiana Lafayette)
RHP Kevin Mannell (Nebraska)
LHP Robert Fortenberry (Kansas State)
LHP Luke Dotson
LHP Bradley Loftin

Incoming Transfers

LHP Tomas Valincius (Virginia)
OF James Nunnallee (Virginia)
C/INF Chone James (Virginia)
INF Vytas Valincius (Illinois)
OF Aidan Teel (Virginia)
INF Ryder Woodson (NC State)
RHP Maddox Webb (The Citadel)
RHP Jackson Logar (James Madison)

Players With No Eligibility Remaining

RHP Stone Simmons
RHP Chase Hungate
INF Hunter Hines
INF Sawyer Reeves

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