The 2025 Kentucky Baseball Mega-Preview
The Wildcats open their 2025 season on Friday against Lipscomb. The Bat Cats Central Mega-Preview sets the stage for this season.
Game week is here. On Friday, the Kentucky baseball program opens the 2025 season in Nashville against Lipscomb. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. and will air on ESPN+.
This is the third year of the mega-preview. If you’re a subscriber at Bat Cats Central, this story will probably serve as a refresher of information you already know. This story is generally intended for a casual audience interested in learning more about the team before the new season begins.
If you aren’t subscribed, now is a great time to hop on board. This is the first preview story of the week, but I will have lineup projections and pitching staff projections dropping later this week for subscribers.
The coaching staff
Nick Mingione, Head Coach (9th season)
Dan Roszel, Pitching coach (6th season)
Austin Cousino, Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator (2nd season)
Chase Slone, Assistant coach/Hitting Coach (1st season)
Logan Salow, Director of Scouting and Analytics (2nd season overall, first season in this role)
Trevor Fitts, Director of Player Development (2nd season)
Brock Doud, Chief of Staff (first season in this role, sixth season on Kentucky’s staff)
Need to know: Mingione begins his ninth season at Kentucky, making him the third-longest tenured head coach in program history. Only Keith Madison (25 seasons, 1979-2003) and Harry Lancaster (16 seasons, 1947, 1951-1965) have coached more seasons than Mingione. However, Mingione has cemented himself in a class of his own. He’s led the program to three Super Regional appearances — Kentucky had never been before Mingione’s first season in 2017 — and the Wildcats’ first trip to Omaha for the College World Series. With a share of the regular season title in 2024, plus the program’s first back-to-back seasons of NCAA Tournament appearances, Mingione earned a contract extension through the 2029 season, averaging $1.4 million per year.
Chase Slone replaced Nick Ammirati as hitting coach. Slone, who comes to Kentucky from Wright State, will get a shot to help lead an SEC offense early in his career.
Key players lost
LF Ryan Waldschmidt
CF Nolan McCarthy (transfer)
RHP Trey Pooser
3B Mitch Daly
2B Emilien Pitre
SS Grant Smith
1B Ryan Nicholson
DH Nick Lopez
LHP Dominic Niman
RHP Mason Moore
RHP Cam O’Brien
Need to know: Many of the recognizable faces from the best team in program history have moved on. Ryan Waldschmidt (Diamondbacks) and Emilien Pitre (Tampa Bay Rays) were selected in the top two rounds of the MLB Draft, and Trey Pooser, Ryan Nicholson, Dominic Niman, Travis Smith and Mason Moore were also selected and signed in the draft. Pooser unexpectedly became the top starter on the staff by postseason play, while Nicholson tied the Kentucky single season home run record with 23.
Other important pieces to the infield, like Grant Smith and Mitch Daly, exhausted eligibility, leaving the entire infield needing to be replaced in 2025. The Wildcats caught a tough break when senior outfielder Nolan McCarthy entered the transfer portal and landed at the University of Georgia.
Key returnees
C Devin Burkes
RHP Robert Hogan
LHP Jackson Nove
LHP Evan Byers
LHP Ben Cleaver
P/OF James McCoy
Need to know: Despite a down season at the plate in 2024, Kentucky’s staff was pleased to get Devin Burkes back for another season. The starting catcher on two of the most successful teams in program history, Burkes should provide a leadership role in a lineup full of new starters. He’s dealt with a wrist injury throughout the fall and winter, but he should be slotted in the starting lineup when fully healthy. James McCoy, the starting right fielder for much of 2024, will likely take on more of a role on the pitching staff this season. Other important bullpen pieces like Evan Byers, Jackson Nove and Robert Hogan return this season.
However, several players from last year’s roster who did not play big roles may move into starting positions this year. Sophomores Eli Small (UTIL), Kyuss Gargett (infielder), Ethan Hindle (infielder) and Patrick Herrera (UTIL) are players who have been competing for playing time heading into the new season.
The newcomers
Transfers (17): RHP Nile Adcock (junior college), RHP Chase Alderman, RHP Oliver Boone (out for the 2025 season with an arm injury), RHP Simon Gregersen, LF Cole Hage, LHP Adam Hachman, OF Carson Hansen, LHP Cole Hentschel, 1B Dylan Koontz, 2B Luke Lawrence, CF Will Marcy, RHP Nic McCay, RF Shaun Montoya, C Raphael Pelletier, RHP Scott Rouse, LHP Ethan Walker, RHP Jaxon Jelkin (expected to miss 2025 season while rehabbing)
Freshmen (13): C Nolan Belcher, C/OF Ryan Schwartz, SS Tyler Bell, IF Aidan Larkin, IF/P Cameron Owens, RHP Bradley Ferrell, LHP Leighton Harris, RHP Nate Harris, OF Khaleel Pratt, RHP Tristan Hunter, RHP Zach Moss, RHP Zak Spurrier, LHP Logan Grubb
Need to know: The Wildcats brought in 29 new players for this year’s team. Many of the position transfers were brought in to be plug-and-play starters, and it’s possible the entire starting weekend rotation will also be from the portal. It’s possible that much of the group above forms the core in 2026. Of the transfers, Nile Adcock, Jaxon Jelkin, Chase Alderman, Oliver Boone, Adam Hachman, Carson Hansen, Luke Lawrence and Ethan Walker all have multiple years of eligibility remaining.
Kentucky was thrilled to see Tyler Bell show up to school after he was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays with the No. 66 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. “…His tools are off the charts. From the running and the quickness and agility, it’s all there. The hitting from both sides of the plate, you can see it there. He’s got power. The fielding is exactly what you’d think. It’s at a very high level. And then his arm strength, he can throw from all the different angles. He checks a lot of boxes,” Kentucky coach Nick Mingione told Bat Cats Central in September.
Bell is the safest pick to earn a starting position out of the freshman group, though a couple of pitchers could take on larger roles as the season progresses.
Future recruiting
Kentucky signed 13 high schoolers in the 2025 class. The class is headlined by local product Owen Jenkins out of Lexington Catholic High School. According to rankings from Perfect Game and Prep Baseball Report, Jenkins is a consensus top-50 prospect but ranked as high as No. 18 by Perfect Game. Other highly ranked recruits include Texas outfielder Braxton Van Cleave, Illinois pitcher/first baseman Conor Essenburg, Indiana righthanded pitcher Joshua Flores and Missouri infielder Caeden Cloud.
The 2026 class has nine commitments to this point, with each prospect ranked inside the top 500 by Prep Baseball Report. Click below to see all of Kentucky’s commitments in the 2025 and 2026 recruiting classes.
Preseason projections
Kentucky was picked to finish 10th by the SEC coaches in the first year of the 16-team SEC. The Wildcats were not a consensus preseason top-25 pick nationally, but there are a few publications that like the team coming into the season. Baseball America ranked the Wildcats No. 20, while the USA Today Coaches Top-25 had Kentucky at no. 24. Kentucky was just outside of the top-25 at the NCBWA Preseason Top-25, coming in at No. 26. D1baseball.com and Perfect Game did not include the Wildcats in their preseason top-25 projections.
Biggest storyline
What does Kentucky do for an encore in 2025?
Fans set numerous attendance records at Kentucky Proud Park in 2024 as the Wildcats hosted important SEC home series and had home-field advantage throughout the postseason with the NCAA Regional and Super Regionals taking place in Lexington. Factor in television viewers with the College World Series, and it’s not an exaggeration to say people across the country likely watched their first Kentucky baseball game.
While it will still be difficult to draw big crowds during the late winter months — and while basketball season is still going on — Kentucky certainly grew its baseball fan base in 2024 during its best season in school history. The best way to keep the newest fans engaged will be to continue winning.
It’s hard to make any solid predictions with so many new players expected to take over roles this season. The Wildcats have overperformed expectations each of the past two seasons. A realistic hope for this season would be to reach the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season. To lose virtually an entire weekend rotation and nearly the whole starting nine offensively and still bounce back to make the NCAA Tournament in one of the best conferences in college baseball would arguably be the best coaching job yet from Mingione and his staff. It would also reinforce the idea that Kentucky has built a legitimate program operating better than ever in evaluation and development.
This 2025 Kentucky Wildcat baseball team will succeed, just like their previous counterparts, because Coach Minge has developed a program that instills the players with the heart of a champion and also gets them to come together and play for each other more and more as the season progresses.
Go CATS!