Kentucky Baseball snags transfer pitcher from South Carolina

The baseball program here in Lexington has had quite the tumultuous summer, it’s about time they have some good news come their way.

The offseason so far has been filled with panic. A mass exodus has been occurring with nearly a dozen players entering the transfer portal since the beginning of June. BBN has been waiting for anything that will give them any sense of increased optimism. Step one happened yesterday.

Former South Carolina pitcher (and HOF name candidate) Magdiel Cotto yesterday announced his intentions to leave the Gamecocks and come to Lexington for the foreseeable future.

Excited for new beginnings and blessed for the opportunity to continue my athletic and academic career at the University of Kentucky! Wildcat Nation here I come! @UKBaseball pic.twitter.com/lrtKmbexaC

— Mag_Cotto (@Cotto_magdiel) July 3, 2021

The 6-foot-4 right-hander was a top 200 recruit coming out of high school last year. He has the ability to ramp up to high 90’s on his fastball and holds multiple different breaking pitches in his resume. He’s the type of player that has an incredibly high ceiling in terms of talent, it’s on him and the staff over at Kentucky Proud Park to make that a reality. Just do ANYTHING but look at his stats from this past year.

Cotto’s profile has already been deleted on the South Carolina roster according to their website, and they might have done him a favor. You have to do a little more searching to find out how he did in his first taste of college ball, and boy was it a stinker, to say the least.

Cotto only tallied eight appearances for the Gamecocks this year and finished up the season with an absolutely brutal stat-line. In almost nine innings, he allowed 10 hits and nine runs while walking four. Took some tough calculating but that comes out to a blistering 1.71 WHIP, certainly not ideal.

Despite carrying an 8.31 ERA in his lone season of college ball this year, this is a move that mortgages future development more than immediate results. Cotto has all the potential and tools to be a good pitcher in this conference–it’s actually a move that could inject some optimism into a locker room that is in desperate need of any good news.

They’re certainly not close done to adding players through the transfer market either. UK Baseball’s Twitter account has tried to be sly and coy for about a week now on what they’re doing, sending cryptic tweets to try and stir up any positive press.

A great start to the holiday weekend! #WeAreUK pic.twitter.com/kkfXQFIdC7

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) July 4, 2021

Added another piece of the puzzle! LET'S GO! 🧩️😼#WeAreUK pic.twitter.com/wL9lR9lA6u

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) June 30, 2021

No other teams at UK directly talk like that on their official accounts. Cotto is a start, even if not officially announced by the program yet, but they’re still a long way away before being taken seriously in the SEC next season.