⚾ 2026 UVA Baseball Offseason Thread

Baseball
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Projecting an Omaha run is probably a bit optimistic but I do think the general outlook for the roster from the fanbase is probably too pessimistic. I think Pollard built the team he wanted to build this offseason.

I think the pitching should be meaningfully better with the guys we return and the ones we added. The lineup certainly isn’t going to be dominant but if the young guys develop like we hope, there could be some nice. As has been said elsewhere, this should be a fun team for Pollard to coach. It’s now mostly a roster full of his guys. If we stay healthy we will have a chance to compete.

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Signed for just under 4 mil which was 2.7 mil under slot. Braves used the savings to sign their 3rd round pick for the same bonus as Gracia which was 3 mil over slot.

Both signed for roughly the slot value of the 23rd pick.

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Braves also shelled out just $500 for their senior signs which I think is a little scummy

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There’s a $2,500 signing contingency fee that teams can save against their bonus pools (but the players still get that money).

It’s possible that the Braves gave them each a $3,000 bonus (still paltry) and the outlets are reporting the amount that was counted against the bonus pool.

However, it is a great example why players are not apt to waste their draft leverage unless there is something truly unique about their situation. You end up in bonus hell where even $50K as a junior can be preferable.

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$500 is a weird number. The Braves gave out 2,500 to 2 guys last year and 7,500 to another guy. Presumably those include the contingency bonus.

Draft bonus reporting is just all over the place. Some teams include the 2500 in the bonus number they report, some don’t. A different set of teams pay slot value with the 2500 on top while other teams include the 2500 as part of the slot value which lets them spent the 2500 to go over slot somewhere else. In the end it’s only 25k total per team, so not that big a deal in the aggregate.

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Wonder how 5 for 5 changes that? Basically an additional year of leverage.

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Yeah, that’s going to be fascinating. You could have a draft eligible sophomore get drafted out of high school if Manfred’s proposal is defeated, then after his 2nd - 5th seasons. Would be pretty crazy to see a case like that play itself out.

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any more chatter out there on Didawick and whether he’s going to sign somewhere as an UDFA?

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In retrospect this made a lot of sense to me…ATL worked a deal with him beforehand, I presume, where he would have been excited to join whatever development plan they have for him and to have a sure-thing situation. He locks in slot value around where he was forecast to be drafted, but presumably with a team that really wants him and avoids the risk of slipping down if he doesn’t get chosen high teens/low 20s. Isn’t that kind of what happened with Henry Veesar in the basketball draft? Was passed over and then slipped way way down.

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It’s a pretty common draft strategy and anyone signing for under slot agreed to it before the team picked him.

Whether it’s a good strategy or not probably depends on how good your scouting and development are.

But basically the Braves had picks 9, 26, 48, 84, 112, 144, 173, 202, 232, 262, 292 and 322 in the first 11 rounds. They didn’t care about their 8, 9 and 10 and saved about 650k, which they spent on their 11th. That 695K bonus was roughly the value of 112, a mid 4th rounder.

So instead of the 12 picks above, their actual spending was about equivalent to 23, 23, 37, 40, 112, 128 and 142 with 1 unsigned pick and about the value of pick 132 left in their pool. If there’s not a ton of difference between how you value the 9th and 23rd guys on your board, and you don’t really care about the guys after 200 then you made out. And if you look at draft history, guys taken after the 6th round are maybe 5% at best of simply making the majors at all and almost all of those guys are replacement level guys you can pick up as minor league free agents for free.

So basically 9, 26, 48, 84, 112, 144, 173 and 202 or 23, 23, 37, 40, 112, 128, 132 and 142?

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I assume the $500 number doesn’t include the $2500 contingency. But I think all teams could give out $10k to any signing which is life changing for a college graduate and still would not affect the teams trying to sign yheir guys at all

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Eric Becker signs with the Reds for $1,650,000! Great deal for the Reds. He should have gone much higher. Excellent Hoos On podcast with Coach Pollard came out today. He confirms that Sam Harris is returning.

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Would highly, highly recommend taking the time to listen to this if you follow our baseball program. Just about every flaw or complaint that was expressed by our fanbase towards this past season’s team is directly mentioned and addressed by Pollard in this interview, as well as the thought process behind our roster building this offseason.

Was also mentioned by Preston on thesabre that the mystery transfer commit likely isn’t happening now due to the returns of Harris and Weatherspoon. We may be done in the portal.

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I still would like to know the projected 3B player/depth.

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Boston has an excess of young pitching and needs hitters, so this isn’t an indictment on Early’s ability or anything. He’s been more average under the hood than he was when he came up last year, but I still think he has another level in him if he refines his command.

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BA came out with their 2026 post draft recruiting class rank. We came in 8th. Two spots below Miss St.

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With Joe Tiroly inking a deal earlier today, all of our draft picks have now officially signed deals with their new orgs. Here’s a list of where the players were picked in the draft, who they were picked by, and what they ended up signing for along with how much the number was above or below the assigned slot value of their pick.

  • AJ Gracia, 1st round 9th overall to the Chicago Cubs for $3.997 mil ($2.677 mil below slot)

  • Bo Lowrance, 2nd round 40th overall to the LA Dodgers for $3 mil ($495.8k above slot)

  • Eric Becker, 2nd round 58th overall to the Cincinnati Reds for $1.65 mil ($12.3k above slot)

  • Kyle Johnson, 6th round 174th overall to the Tampa Bay Rays for $384k ($2.5k below slot)

  • Joe Tiroly, 7th round 215th overall to the San Diego Padres for $225k ($51.4k below slot)

  • Tyler Kapa, 14th round 415th overall to the Miami Marlins for $147.5k ($2.5k below slot)

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This Jeff White article says Pollard still expects to add another transfer. There’s seemed to be conflicting info on that.

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Unless Jeff White has a typo in the article, a spot on the roster may have opened up.

Of the Cavaliers’ incoming freshmen, only infielder Bo Lowrance was drafted. The Dodgers selected Lowrance in the first round, and he signed with them this week. The other 13 members of UVA’s first-year class are on Grounds and taking summer-school classes, Pollard said.

Outside of Lowrance, we have 14 members of the recruiting class remaining. It’s possible someone didn’t come for whatever reason. Perfect Game lists 15 others besides Lowrance, but Jayden Davis flipped to Liberty about a month ago and didn’t update his profile at PG to reflect the change.

By process of elimination, this article, Pollard’s recent podcast with Preston at The Sabre, and UVA Baseball social media did not / has not specifically mention these players that I recall: Barrett Bucholz, Cannon Murtagh, Bradley McCafferty, Pierce Quinn, Wes Peterson, and Griffin Loy.

If there was someone that dropped from the class and opened up room for another transfer, it’s probably within that group of players. It’s also possible that a potential late career player with eligibility and a spot made a late decision not to return but math on the recruiting class jumped out immediately to me.

Everyone in the recruiting class still lists UVA Baseball in their IG and/or X bios. The players are on Grounds too but no one has posted any content from at UVA yet. So you cannot rule out a typo from Jeff White in the article either.

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