Four Former UVA Baseball Stars Remain In The Transfer Portal; Is There Any Chance Chris Pollard Can Retain Them?

There has not been much buzz about the Cavaliers being able to retain these players since Virginia hired Chirs Pollard away from Duke. Pollard is going to have his introductory press conference tomorrow and that is certainly going to be one of the questions asked to him. It will be interesting to see his answer and to to see if Virginia has any chance of staying in the mix.

According to On3 Sports, there are a few SEC teams trying to get Ford from the portal.

Pollard has been able to get a number of former players to follow him from Duke, including one of the top prospects in the 2026 MLB Draft. Duke outfielder AJ Gracia and two-player Kyle Johnson are both following former Duke head coach Chris Pollard to Charlottesville.

These are both big gets for UVA. Gracia was one of the top hitters for Duke last season, slashing .293/.449/.558 with 15 home runs and 54 RBIs. Johnson hit .220/.343/.508 with four home runs and 19 RBI. Given how many players left when O'Connor left for Mississippi State, these two should be instant impact players in 2026. There are other former Duke players that are in the portal, but these are the first two that have announced their commitment to Virginia.

During his time at Duke, Pollard coached 46 Major League Baseball Draft picks, 28 All-ACC selections, nine Freshman All-Americans and seven All-Americans.

Virginia will be Pollard’s fourth stop as a collegiate head coach. Over his 26 seasons as a skipper, Pollard has compiled a career record of 806-614-3, including stops at Pfeiffer (2000-04), Appalachian State (2005-12) and Duke (2013-25). As he did at Duke in 2025, Pollard led Appalachian State to the NCAA Tournament during his final season with the Mountaineers in 2012.

No stranger to postseason baseball in Charlottesville, Pollard coached Duke to the 2023 Charlottesville Super Regional and Appalachian State to the 2012 Charlottesville Regional.

In his final two seasons in Durham, Pollard led the Blue Devils to back-to-back 40-win campaigns for the first time in program history, culminating in Duke hosting its first Super Regional in 2025.

The 2024 season saw the Blue Devils break the home run record for the second consecutive season, recording a program-best 115. Duke finished the 2024 campaign with a 40-20 record, the second time in program history to record 40-plus wins in a season (both under Pollard). The Blue Devils secured their second ACC Tournament title by sweeping the week in Charlotte.

Duke secured the program's third Super Regional appearance in 2023, finishing with a 39-24 record. The Blue Devils were selected to the Conway Regional, advancing to the championship game against host Coastal Carolina, where Duke blasted its way to a 12-3 final in the regional championship.

Pollard led Duke to another historic season in 2021, capturing the program's first ACC Baseball Tournament championship title in program history and its first conference title since 1961.

Duke’s 35 wins in 2019 marked Pollard’s sixth consecutive season with over 30 victories, making the Blue Devil skipper the first head coach to lead Duke to six 30-win seasons in his first seven campaigns. The 2019 season culminated in the program’s second Super Regional appearance, where Duke fell to eventual national champion Vanderbilt.

Under Pollard's guidance, Duke assembled a historic 2018 campaign. Ranked in the preseason for the first time in program history, the 2018 Blue Devils lived up to the early-season hype, achieving the first 40-win season in program history while also earning a program-record 18 ACC wins and advancing to the first NCAA Super Regional in school history.

Pollard and the Blue Devils first burst onto the national scene in 2016 as Duke ended the season with a record of 33-24, which was good enough to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1961.