The Major League Baseball draft hasn’t always been kind to the Florida Gators’ baseball program.
While it excites many Florida fans to see the team’s top stars be selected in the draft’s early rounds, the annual affair plucks away players that would otherwise be key to the following season’s plans.
The Gators saw Hunter Barco depart Gainesville for professional baseball in the 2022 draft. However, starting pitcher Brandon Sproat didn’t agree to terms with the New York Mets, who selected him 90th overall.
As a result, Sproat will return to the program for his junior season. Sproat impressed many with his sophomore efforts. He recorded a 3.41 earned run average across 17 appearances and 89.2 innings.
This turn of events bodes well for Florida’s rotation outlook. Sproat and Southern Mississippi transfer Hurston Waldrep will form a formidable 1-2 weekend punch.
“Getting back Brandon totally changes the look of our rotation,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We're looking forward to him to lead our staff, but we’ve got some other guys that made a lot of improvements.”
Waldrep, a junior, is also held in high regard by professional scouts. He’s ranked as the No. 10 prospect in the 2023 draft by MLB.com. Gators outfielder Wyatt Langford is also featured on the list at No. 3.
The Georgia native has already earned the adoration of his new teammates.
“He's one of the highest work ethic guys that I've been around in my five years,” senior catcher BT Riopelle said. “I'm excited to see him thrive in Spring.”
Waldrep was the ace of a Golden Eagles squad that fell just short of the College World Series a year ago; it lost to the eventual champion, Ole Miss, in the Super Regional. His stats in his two Southern Mississippi seasons speak for themselves — a 3.22 ERA, 106 strikeouts and an astounding 14 strikeouts per nine innings.
O’Sullivan said he personally recruited Waldrep at the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team Training Camp in Cary, North Carolina, this past summer.
When it comes to the predicament of losing an ace like Barco, Waldrep should fill in well.
“It's really nice to have two guys that are solidified starters at the beginning of the year, when you don't have question marks there,” Riopelle said. “They’re both competitors; they’re both leaders.”
O’Sullivan indicated in his Monday media availability that sophomore two-way player Jac Caglianone has a good chance of being the team’s Sunday starter.
It’s easier to manage Caglianone’s innings in a starting role than it is to balance his workload as a long-reliever and first baseman, O’Sullivan said.
Caglianone, a southpaw, has not yet pitched in a regular season game but toed the rubber multiple times during the team’s preseason scrimmages. He’s coming off Tommy John surgery from his senior year of high school.
His ability to touch triple digits with his fastball and provide a powerful bat in Florida’s lineup makes him essential to O’Sullivan’s strategy.
“If we're going to be as good as we want to be, he's going to have to pitch significant innings for us,” O’Sullivan said. “He's just too talented to not run him out there as much as you can.”
The Gators have other options for Sunday or mid-week starting pitchers. Sophomore right-hander Brandon Neely tied for the second most starts among Florida’s arms last season with 10 and is likely to return to the mid-week slate.
Returning sophomores Ryan Slater, Anthony Ursitti and Philip Abner are all candidates to make occasional starts on days they are not in the bullpen, O’Sullivan said.
Sophomore lefty Pierce Coppola opened last season as the Sunday starter but only played in one game before having surgery on a bulging disk. He will not be available until March at the earliest.
Florida will also look to its bullpen to take a step forward. The Gators pitched to a 4.22 staff ERA — fifth-best in the Southeastern Conference — but saw its freshman-majority bullpen blow several late-inning leads over the course of last season.
High-leverage arms like sidearmer Blake Purnell, lefty Carsten Finnvold and righties Tyler Nesbitt, Fisher Jameson and Nick Ficarotta are each searching for strong sophomore performances. Purnell, Abner and Slater all spent their summers in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League fine-tuning their deliveries.
The pitching staff features several additions as well. Junior left-hander Clete Hartzog transferred in from Wallace Community College in Alabama to give the Gators more experience in the bullpen.
Two freshmen to keep an eye on are two-way players Yoel Tejeda Jr. and Chris Arroyo.
Both Broward County natives, Tejeda Jr. starred at North Broward Prep with his career 1.40 ERA and 145 strikeouts, while Arroyo compiled a 0.99 ERA and 160 strikeouts across his final two seasons at Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Righty Jake Clemente also signed with the Gators out of Stoneman Douglas and is working his way back from shoulder soreness. Lastly, left-hander Cade Fisher joins the program from Dalton, Georgia, after setting the state’s high school record with a 0.70 ERA in his four years at Northwest Whitfield High School.
If the Gators can avoid a situation where critical arms miss extensive time due to injury, as Barco and Coppola did in 2022, their starting rotation will give them a chance to win. Combine this with a more experienced bullpen, and Florida’s odds of contending in the SEC gauntlet just may go up a tick.
The Gators open up their 2023 season at Condron Ballpark against Charleston Southern at 7 p.m. Feb. 17.
Contact Ethan Eibe at eeibe@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @EthanEibe.
Ethan Eibe is a second-year UF sports media major and covers Gators baseball for The Alligator. Outside of his writing, Ethan is a play-by-play broadcaster for UF student radio and has spent two summers announcing professional baseball with the Alpine Cowboys. He is a long-suffering Miami Marlins fan.
