Why Kingston and South Carolina are staying aggressive with transfer portal
South Carolina baseball coach Mark Kingston has been busy this offseason, hitting the transfer portal hard to supplement a team that went 27-28 last season and missed the NCAA tournament.
So far, Kingston has added eight players from the portal, including three from in-state rival Clemson. Since the players have yet to sign with South Carolina, Kingston wasn’t allowed to reference the players specifically during a press conference Tuesday.
Despite this, Kingston still found a way to let it be known that he thinks “a great majority” of the players coming in will be impact guys for the Gamecocks.
“We can’t talk specifically about how the transfer portal has been to us, but it’s been very, very good to us over the last month,” Kingston said. “At some point we’ll be able to get into all the details of all the new players we’re bringing in, but I feel very, very good about what our roster is going to look like next year.”
So what exactly are Kingston and company looking for when they peruse the some 3,000 or so names he says are in transfer portal? And how do they determine that those guys are what he needs to be successful in 2023?
“We went into the portal with a few ideas of what we wanted to attack,” Kingston said. “We wanted to attack performers and we wanted to approach guys that, maybe, were very high-end guys a year or two ago and for whatever reason the light hasn’t quite gone on but they are filled with talent. And maybe a change of scenery, maybe a new voice, can help spark that talent.”
Kingston used outfielder Josiah Sightler as an example of someone who fit this description. Though Sightler wasn’t a transfer, he saw improvement this year from the plate, with his batting average jumping from .268 to .300 and his slugging percentage increasing from .437 to .629.
“We saw what Josiah Sightler did this year. With continued hard work, sometimes the light really goes on with a talented player, and so those are the areas we’re really targeting,” Kingston said.
Kingston harped on the impact that the transfer portal has had on college baseball when it comes to shaping rosters, but noted that its effect on teams is varying.
“Some programs will have to rely on it more than others,” Kingston said. “Where we are right now, we’re having to rely on it more than maybe we will have to a year from now or two years from now. But where we are right now, we felt that we need to be aggressive in the portal and we’ve done that.”
South Carolina got its first commitment from a portal player May 25 when Presbyterian transfer Chris Veach announced his intent to play for the Gamecocks.
Since then South Carolina has added two more pitchers, a catcher and some infield help to the team replace holes in the roster left by graduating guys such as Brandt Belk and Andrew Eyster as well as transfers like Colin Burgess.
As for what the future of recruiting the portal holds, Kingston is already happy with the improvements that have been made to the roster but said that the Gamecocks aren’t done quite yet.
“We could potentially add a couple more out of the portal,” Kingston said. “Again, just a matter of needs and does it make sense for where we are. I would say we’re getting close to being done because of the volume we’re at already, but we’re always on the lookout for somebody that can help us.”
On Wednesday afternoon, Kingston added yet another player from the transfer portal. Vanderbilt infielder Gavin Casas announced his commitment to South Carolina. Casas hit .294 in 22 games this past season for the Commodores before going down with a knee injury in April.
Kingston also added that there isn’t a specific position that they’ll be targeting, rather he’ll likely go with the best player available if he were to add anyone else to the roster.
“I feel good about the depth on the offensive and the pitching side, so now it’s just best player available and is it somebody that moves the needle in terms of what we already have on our roster,” Kingston said.
SOUTH CAROLINA BASEBALL TRANSFER COMMITS
- RHP Nick Proctor — California
- RHP Ricky Williams — Clemson
- 1B/OF Dylan Brewer — Clemson
- C Jonathan French — Clemson
- 1B/OF Jacob Compton — Memphis
- INF/OF Caleb Denny — Oral Roberts
- INF/RHP Chris Veach — Presbyterian
- INF Gavin Casas — Vanderbilt
This story was originally published June 28, 2022 at 4:10 PM.
