Florida pitcher Frank Menendez enters transfer portal

Florida Gators left-handed pitcher Frank Menendez has entered the transfer portal, per On3’s Pete Nakos. He spent the first two seasons of his college career with the Gators.

A native of Miami, Menendez played his high school baseball at Doral Academy Charter. There, Perfect Game ranked him as the 181st-ranked player overall and the 26th-ranked left-handed pitcher nationally in his recruiting cycle. He was also the 24th-ranked player in the state of Florida. In 2022, he was named the PG Gulf Coast HS Showdown Most Valuable Pitcher.

During his two seasons at Florida, Menendez worked out of the bullpen. He appeared in 22 career games with the Gators. During that time, he went 2-0, threw 23.1 innings, and gave up 10 earned runs. That’s a 3.86 ERA. He also has 26 strikeouts to 16 walks. Opponents have a .250 batting average against him.

Going into the 2025 season, there were high expectations for Menendez. He had been asked by head coach Kevin O’Sullivan to improve his physical shape so that he could turn into a key left-handed arm coming out of the bullpen. He did just that, too.

“In the offseason, they wanted me to lose some weight, cut down on the weight, make it easier for my mechanics,” Menendez said early in the season. “Once I lost the weight and trimmed down and got back to where I was in high school, everything kind of started clearing up in the zone, allowing me to throw strikes and throw a little harder this year.”

Unfortunately, Menendez was only able to appear in five games during the 2024 season before he suffered a season-ending injury. The injury was to his elbow. That would prove to be one of several key injuries that hurt the Gators in the early part of last season.

The Gators went 39-22 overall last season and 15-15 in SEC play. That was good for a 10th place finish within the SEC. It was also good enough to make it to the Field of 64. There, the Gators would go to the Conway Regional. There, the Gators would go 1-2, getting knocked out of the postseason quicker than they had hoped to last season.

Now, O’Sullivan is looking for a way to once again get to Omaha next season. It will be his 19th season with the Gators, and he’s found that kind of success there before. That includes winning the College World Series in 2017. He’s also made it to Omaha a total of nine times. Next year, however, he’ll have to find a way to do it without Menendez on his pitching staff.