USC pitcher Caden Aoki has entered the Transfer Portal

USC Trojans right-handed pitcher Caden Aoki has entered the Transfer Portal. He has one season of eligibility remaining.

Aoki spent the last three seasons pitching for the Trojans. Prior to that, he spent one season at Notre Dame. He also spent one summer playing in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Chatham Anglers. Since getting to the Trojans, Aoki was an All-Pac-12 selection in 2023 and made the Pac-12 All-Tournament team in 2024.

A Huntington Beach native, Aoki’s brother, Connor Aoki, is also on the USC baseball team. However, it’s not clear if he’s also going to enter the Transfer Portal.

Over the course of his time at USC, Caden Aoki appeared in 41 games, making 38 starts. He’d pitch 213.1 innings to a 3.67 ERA over the course of that time. Along with that, he’d have 192 strikeouts and 44 walks.

In 2025, USC made the move to the Big Ten and Aoki would take on the biggest workload of his career. In 17 games and 16 starts, he pitched 97 innings. His ERA for the season was 3.99 while striking out 90 batters and walking another 14. He also had a complete game. That was a two-hit performance against the Minnesota Golden Gophers.

Caden Aoki’s final performance with USC came on June 2nd in the NCAA Regional against Oregon State. He’d throw 1.1 innings and only give up one run in the effort. However, the Trojans would ultimately fall in the Regional. Still, the season as a whole seemed like a success for the Trojans.

USC head coach Andy Stankiewicz is finishing up his third season running the Trojans baseball program. Prior to that, he had been the head coach at Grand Canyon for a decade. In his three seasons at USC, he has a record of 102-74-1 overall and 52-37 in conference play. That’s splitting time between the Pac-12 and the Big Ten.

In USC’s first Big Ten season, they made the postseason for the first time under Stankiewicz. At 37-23 overall, they were able to make it to the NCAA Regional before getting eliminated. The hope is that they can now build on that and become a threat to win the Big Ten in 2026. However, it’s going to be key first to do what they can to navigate the Transfer Portal.

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.