Q&A: Mingione talks fall practice, discusses the latest happenings with the Kentucky baseball program

Kentucky baseball coach Nick Mingione is set to enter his ninth season as the Wildcats' head coach.

Photo by Morgan Simmons of UK Athletics

Preparation for the 2025 Kentucky baseball season is underway. The Wildcats baseball team has begun workouts as an important fall looms for the program. With many players gone from the breakthrough 2024 College World Series team, competition should be abundant this fall as Kentucky seeks its third straight postseason appearance.

I met with head coach Nick Mingione earlier this week to discuss several topics related to the baseball program. I pulled a few items from this Q&A because I wanted those to be their own story. Paid subscribers should expect those stories in their inbox over the next few days.

This interview was lightly edited for clarity.

On the roster-building process this offseason and what aspects were prioritized:

Mingione: “Really, when you think about it from the standpoint of the MLB draft, the transfer portal, high school recruiting, current players who are already in your program, there are a lot of layers to it. When people ask ‘hey coach, what do we have to replace? And I just immediately tell them, ‘Friday guy signed pro, Saturday guy signed pro, Sunday guy signed pro, center fielder portal, first baseman signed pro, second baseman signed pro, shortstop signed pro, third baseman signed pro, left fielder signed pro, DH graduated (laughs). We’re kinda starting over in a lot of ways when you think about it. 

“But when you think about the players that we have in our program, the transfer portal and obviously the incoming high school guys, there are a lot of layers to breaking it down. We’ve done the best job we could to fill all those gaps and all those holes.” 

On what advantage is provided by the players who do return from last year’s team: