Elon transfer Alex Duffey commits to Kentucky baseball

CR3_5684A.CR3 — University of Kentucky Baseball vs. Louisville at Kentucky Proud Park on April 22, 2025 - Crawford Ifland, Kentucky Sports Radio

Nick Mingione has consistently used the transfer portal to bolster his program’s roster. Kentucky baseball is again an active shopper in the free agency market. The Bat Cats added a catcher with a strong hitting profile on Saturday.

Elon transfer Alex Duffey is now a Cat.

All Glory to God #committed #GoCats pic.twitter.com/5wQHK5oeGz
— Alex Duffey (@duffey_alex) June 14, 2025

Duffey (6-0, 210) slashed .349/.463/.479 with a .942 OPS while earning second-team All-CAA honors for the Phoenix in 2024. The New Jersey native played in 55 games and earned 54 starts as a redshirt junior. The left-handed hitter recorded 13 doubles, four home runs, and 54 RBI in 243 plate appearances. The veteran showed solid discipline at the plate with a 18.9 percent strikeout rate and a 16.9 percent walk rate.

“It came down to two big things for me,” Duffey told Derek Terry of Bat Cats Central on Friday. “Just that championship mindset of winning. That was a big thing to me. I wanted a winning program, a winning culture where that’s what they’re striving for every day. The second thing for me is I wanted to challenge myself and I wanted to compete against the best of the best. There’s no better place to do that than the SEC.”

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The catcher has one year of eligibility remaining. Alex Duffey will compete for the starting catcher position in Lexington after the departure of long-time starter Devin Burkes.

Kentucky’s transfer class

Below is Kentucky’s current incoming portal class for 2026.

C Alex Duffey (Elon)
RHP Kaden Echeman (Northern Kentucky)
RHP Burkley Bounds (Eastern Kentucky)
RHP Jack Bennett (Western Kentucky)
RHP Bryson Treichel (North Florida)
RHP Ryan Mullan (Loyola Marymount)
INF Tyler Cerny (Indiana)
RHP Connor Mattison (Grand Canyon)

Nick Mingione is also bringing in a 13-man high school class and returns a key group of core pieces from last season’s roster, headlined by Tyler Bell, a Freshman All-American from the 2025 campaign. The likes of RF Ryan Schwartz, RHP Nate Harris, and LHP Ben Cleaver will also come back to Lexington for next season. Several more Wildcats, such as 2B Luke Lawrence and OF Carson Hansen, are eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft but can return for another college season.