Georgia Baseball: Resetting the roster after MLB Draft decisions

The 2023 MLB Draft has come and gone, and players picked are well underway with their negotiations and decisions on whether to stay in school or go pro. Both Georgia players picked (Jaden Woods and Liam Sullivan), as well as a pair of Bulldog transfer portal commits (Joseph Redfield and Weston Eberly), have decided that their next steps will be into professional baseball while those that did not get picked have made up their minds too.

All that being said, he’s an updated look at where Georgia’s roster for 2023 stands…

The Bulldogs have been busy under the direction of new head coach Wes Johnson in the transfer portal. At the time of publication, Georgia has landed 13 players out of the portal including several that are expected to make an immediate impact.

In the outfield, Clayton Chadwick (Sam Houston State), Dylan Goldstein (Florida Atlantic), Logan Jordan (Campbell), John Marant (College of Central Florida) and Parker Walsh (Lafayette) will make their way to Athens. Chadwick started 63 games for a Sam Houston State team that won the WAC and made the NCAA Tournament. He hit .294 with 10 home runs and 49 RBI. Jordan’s Campbell squad also made the NCAA Tournament as he earned All-Big South honors for a second straight season. Jordan hit .301 on the season with 12 home runs and 52 RBI including a strong two home run day in the regional against South Carolina.

As for Goldstein and Marant, they also earned recognition at their respective levels. Goldstein hit .313 with 31 home runs and 125 RBI in his two-year career at Florida Atlantic, earning All-Conference USA honors both seasons. Marant on the other hand was a JUCO All-American this past season at College of Central Florida, spending one season there after a year at Georgia Tech previously.

Lukas Farris of Western Kentucky is another player that could see time in the outfield. Similar to Charlie Condon, whose return to the Bulldogs after a National Freshman of the Year campaign is without a doubt the biggest of any roster reset news, Farris can play both first base and outfield. Then there’s Slate Alford (Mississippi State) that is expected to get the first crack at the third base spot. Farris hit .291 in his one season at Western Kentucky, driving in 43 runs with 13 RBI. As for Alford, he didn’t have his best season. He started 40 games and hit .248 on the year with nine home runs and 36 RBI.

Turning the attention to the middle infield, Kolby Branch (Baylor) and Paul Toetz (Purdue) are both big time additions. Branch was named a Freshman All-American has he started all 55 games in which he played for the Bears. Branch drove in 41 runs with 69 hits, scoring 49 himself too while hitting .325. He totaled 25 extra base hits.

Toetz, who spend his first two seasons (2020-2021) at Indiana where he led the Big Ten in doubles and earned Freshman All-American honors before transferring to Purdue in 2022, started all 103 games for the Boilermakers during his time on the team. This past season, he became the first Purdue player to win the team’s offensive Triple Crown since 2015 as he hit .335 on 66 hits with 43 runs scored, 10 home runs and 53 RBI. Branch and Toetz join returning starting shortstop Sebastian Murillo, a transfer from Long Beach State this time last year.

Of course there’s the pitching and catching side of the game too. Georgia got great news when Fernando Gonzalez and Corey Collins went undrafted, both deciding to return to school. An everyday catcher in Gonzalez, plus an excellent hitter who can provide assistance behind the plate and in other spots too in Collins, you won’t hear the former pitching coach turned head coach complain. Same goes for getting Charlie Goldstein to take his name out of the transfer portal. Georgia has picked up pitchers Brian Zeldin (Penn), Daniel Padysak (Charleston Southern) and Zach Harris (Georgia Southern), plus UAB catcher Henry Hunter, out of the portal so far and is expected to be active in pursuit of more pitchers.

Returnees not named include Jarvis Evans (LHP), Will Pearson (RHP), Garret Spikes (OF), Leighton Finley (RHP), Matthew Hoskins (RHP), Kolten Smith (RHP), Blake Gillespie (RHP), Coleman Willis (RHP), Dwight Allen (OF), Chandler Marsh (RHP), Tanner Knowles (INF), Luke Boykin (OF), DJ Radtke (RHP), Zach DeVito (RHP) and Collin Caldwell (LHP). Josh Stinson, Josh Tate, Parks Harber, Cole Wagner, Luke Wagner, Michael Polk, Max DeJong, Jake Poindexter, Jonathan Little and Justin Thomas are listed on the 2024 roster found on Georgia’s athletics website but have either decided to walk away from baseball or enter the transfer portal.