Ole Miss baseball is in offseason mode before Memorial Day but intend to 'take advantage of it'
The offseason is already underway for the Ole Miss baseball team and it is only May 20. That serves as a bittersweet double-edged knife for the Rebels.
On the one hand it means the defending national champions will, in fact, not be defending the 2022 crown. But it also means Ole Miss head coach Mike Bianco and his staff get to take advantage of a recruiting opportunity lost to them a year ago.
This time last year Ole Miss was preparing for the Southeastern Conference Tournament, which ended up being only one game, but then got into the NCAA Tournament and commenced to go 10-1 in a summer surge.
Playing until the final possible day on the calendar cost the Rebels the opportunity to really hit the transfer portal hard. Of course Bianco would like to have that problem again this summer but that is not the case.
Instead, with the 2023 campaign in the books it allows Ole Miss to hit the transfer portal window hard when it opens on May 29. The window runs through July 13 for baseball and look for the Rebels to be a bit more aggressive.
Ole Miss was on the other side of things last May and June, knowing that teams who missed the postseason were able to recruit the pick of the litter while 64 other teams were fighting to get to Omaha.
“When you look to the next year, we’re done with this year,” Bianco said on Friday. “Other teams are still playing and they’re trying to combo it. Now we can put all our attention (to recruiting). It’s not a position you want to be in, but we certainly will try to take advantage of it.”
With Ole Miss wrapping up its season on Friday it allows for Bianco to do all the final housekeeping of 2023 this weekend.
Ole Miss returned from Tuscaloosa on Friday night after getting swept by Alabama in the final SEC series of the season.
While 12 SEC teams will shift its attention to Hoover and the SEC Tournament next week Ole Miss is one of two teams able to get its end-of-season things out of the way and clear a path towards recruiting.
All the exit interviews will be concluded by Sunday, giving Bianco a clear picture of what his 2024 roster might look like and what should be on his shopping list when the portal opens.
On Monday Bianco will go with Kemp Alderman to the Ferris Trophy ceremony, officially putting the 2023 season in the books.
“The biggest thing is to get organized,” Bianco said. “(Carl Lafferty) and them will hit the ground running recruiting-wise… We have to get on the road for the next week to see games and then put together a plan for the rest of the summer.”
The portal is one key piece Ole Miss needs to get right this summer after mixed results from last year’s portal class of Ethan Groff, Ethan Lege and Anthony Calarco. Another important part is keeping tabs on its incoming high school class.
As is usually tradition Ole Miss will be worried about its top commits come the MLB Draft in July. The most concerning players and their draft situation include infielder Cooper Pratt, Oxford catcher Campbell Smithwick and pitchers Zander Mueth and Josh Knoth.
June was an important mont for the baseball program on the field last year. Now this June serves as an important month for the program off the field.
