Kentucky baseball receives two more transfer portal commitments

Nick Mingione is putting in work with the transfer portal once again.

Kentucky baseball landed a pair of portal commits on Friday, bringing the number of transfer additions this offseason up to seven. Indiana junior infielder Tyler Cerny was the first to join the Bat Cats, with Grand Canyon sophomore pitcher Connor Mattison announcing his decision to follow suit less than an hour later. Both rank among the top 40 players (Cerney at No. 37, Mattison at No. 11) to enter the portal this offseason, according to 64Analytics.

With the Hoosiers in 2025, Cerny hit for a .281 average with 14 doubles, 10 home runs, and 32 RBI. After amassing 173 games played at IU, he’ll have one year of eligibility remaining with Kentucky. Meanwhile, Mattison posted a 5.40 ERA with 41 strikeouts across 33.1 innings pitched with the Lopes this past season. The righty, who tossed a no-hitter as a freshman in 2024, will have two years of eligibility left upon his arrival in Lexington.

After making the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season in 2025 — the first such streak in program history — Mingione is again doing a terrific job in the portal. Kentucky is losing 12 players to exhausted eligibility and has lost 13 more as outgoing transfers. But the ‘Cats have already brought in seven new faces via the portal (six of them right-handed pitchers), including Friday’s new additions. More are expected to come soon.

Below is Kentucky’s current incoming portal class for 2026. Note that Echeman, Bennett, and Cerny are all eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft.

Mingione is also bringing in a 13-man high school class and returns a key group of core pieces from last season’s roster, headlined by Tyler Bell, a Freshman All-American from the 2025 campaign. The likes of RF Ryan Schwartz, RHP Nate Harris, and LHP Ben Cleaver will also come back to Lexington for next season. Several more Wildcats, such as 2B Luke Lawrence and OF Carson Hansen, are eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft but can return for another college season.

Derek Terry of Bat Cats Central reports that another portal commitment is expected to come on Saturday. Let Mingione cook.