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Pitt's CJ Funk makes a gesture to the Panther dugout after hitting a double in Wednesday night's 9-4 loss to West Virginia at PNC Park.
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Sign of the times: Pitt baseball experiences heavy roster turnover due to recent changes in sport’s landscape

Matthew Hawley/Pitt Athletics

Sign of the times: Pitt baseball experiences heavy roster turnover due to recent changes in sport’s landscape

Mike Bell isn’t afraid to admit he’s a bit old-school. But the Panthers baseball coach is also aware that Pitt, along with every other program in college baseball, is operating in a different reality compared to the one that existed when he accepted the job in the summer of 2018.

While it hasn’t received the attention it would’ve had it occurred within other athletic teams on Pitt’s campus, the Panthers baseball roster has seen a notable amount of departures in recent weeks. The Post-Gazette has confirmed that 15 players from Pitt’s 2023 team have entered the transfer portal, which is more than any other ACC program, per D1Baseball.com.

Years ago, that type of turnover would’ve been a crushing blow to a program. But for Bell, the high amount of transfers is nothing more than a product of the times.

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“I think it’s becoming the norm because of some outlying factors,” Bell told the Post-Gazette in a phone interview earlier this week. “This is not just a University of Pittsburgh thing. This is a thing across the country.”

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The majority of Pitt baseball’s transfers are underclassmen. Six of the 11 freshmen on Bell’s team are gone, as are five of the eight sophomores for the 2023 roster. Of the 15 transfers leaving Pitt, only five appeared in at least 20 of the team’s 55 games this past season.

The Post-Gazette spoke with numerous players who recently exited the program, under the condition that they could remain anonymous to ensure their future recruitment wouldn’t be impacted by this story. Although each individual who was interviewed had his own personal reason for leaving Pitt, there was a consensus agreement among all transfers that the main reason for the bulk of the departures had to do with a lack of emphasis put toward developing young talent.

“It felt like the coaches had their guys and they were going to stick with them no matter what,” one ex-Panther told the Post-Gazette. “They weren’t playing favorites, but it felt like they were giving up on people too early. Some guys felt like they never had a chance to see the field, regardless of what the guy ahead of them on the depth chart would do.”

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“I thought I was going to be at a program that wanted me to get better, but I basically got abandoned before the season started,” another Pitt transfer said. “They were just playing the same, older guys every game.”

While the players who spoke to the Post-Gazette were frustrated with how their time in Pittsburgh unfolded, none of them expressed ill will toward the program or the coaching staff. The interviewed departees acknowledged that part of the issue is, as Bell pointed out, the many changes to the college baseball landscape in recent years.

“It’s just part of how college baseball is now,” a transferring underclassmen said. “You don’t really have to care about freshmen and sophomores when you have guys that are 22 and 23 years old with three, four or even five years of college baseball experience. They know how to play at this level.”

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“You had to come in and basically be fully polished,” added another underclassmen transfer. “I understand that’s just how it is today with the transfer portal. They can go out and get someone who already has college experience, someone they won’t need to develop. It felt like they had no patience for the younger guys on the team. There was no willingness to wait and see how we would pan out.”

Like many other industries, leagues or organizations, college baseball continues to feel the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

In 2020, Major League Baseball cut its draft from 40 rounds to just five. Rather than going back to a 40-round draft in 2021, the league agreed to have just 20 rounds, due to the termination of numerous minor league programs throughout the country. The 20-round draft model was then made a permanent fixture the following year when the league’s new collective bargaining agreement was signed.

For college baseball, a smaller draft meant fewer players leaving early to begin their professional careers. To go along with fewer professional opportunities, the NCAA also increased college baseball roster sizes from 35 to 40 players and granted each collegiate athlete an extra year of eligibility due to the pandemic.

Simply put, in today’s game of college baseball, there are more older and experienced players than ever before, which, combined with the emergence of the transfer portal, has amplified issues in roster construction and team development.

“There was a major shift in the recruiting cycle coming out of COVID,” Bell said. “I think what you’re seeing now, with the portal, with those changes, you’re seeing a lot of older rosters being built.

“There were a lot of players throughout the country who committed to programs as a freshman or a sophomore in high school during the pandemic. A lot of programs are still honoring those commitments, but when the players arrive and don’t play their first year, some want to go somewhere else, where they think they can see the field earlier.”

Bell acknowledged landscape changes have made it difficult for younger players to see the field but refuted the notion he and his staff neglected underclassmen.

“Everything we do is about the student-athlete,” Bell said. “Whether you’re No. 1 on the roster in a ranking situation or No. 40, each and every player has individual needs from a developmental standpoint both on and off the field. It’s our commitment as a staff to develop the person just as much as the player. There is a large investment on our end, when it comes to time spent and communication, day in and day out, with how we go about our daily programs with these guys.

“As we get closer to the season, yes, there is probably more time spent with the starting nine or your core 12 on the mound, but those other guys, you have to give them just as much time. You have to give them just as much attention. That’s why we’re here. Those guys are the future of your program.”

While Pitt has the highest number of transfers out of any team in the ACC, Bell was correct when he said having a high volume of departures isn’t a trend unique to his program.

Over 30 college baseball teams currently have 10 or more players in the transfer portal, with that number likely to increase once the season comes to an end. And similar to other sports such as football and basketball, the players in the transfer portal aren’t just young players looking to earn a shot but also accomplished veteran talents in search of a new team to wrap up their collegiate careers.

For Bell — and all other coaches whose teams didn’t qualify for the 2023 College World Series in Omaha, Neb. — roster construction for the 2024 season is already underway. The Panthers signed 10 high school players in their 2023 recruiting class and have already added a few more newcomers through the transfer portal.

“There is some of this that I don’t like,” Bell said. “I’m a traditionalist. I’m old-school. I don’t like where some of this stuff is going, but when they made these changes, it caused some chaos and it changed the way everybody has to do things.”

Noah Hiles: nhiles@post-gazette.com and Twitter @_NoahHiles

First Published: June 14, 2023, 4:31 p.m.

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