OXFORD | Carl Lafferty, after the final out of the 2022 season, stood in the outfield in Omaha and processed the national championship, all the players who helped Ole Miss to that moment and the pandemonium in front of him.
Five months ago, as the 2023 season concluded, the Ole Miss recruiting coordinator was again in an outfield, this time surveying the car crash of a baseball season.
The Rebels went 25-29 overall, 6-24 in the SEC and ended with six straight league losses, the final three coming in Tuscaloosa. Alabama, also in that outfield, would host a regional two weeks later. Ole Miss had its worst season since 1997 — three years before Mike Bianco was named head coach.
Lafferty is always thinking ahead about the future roster, and he stood there blaming himself for what occurred. The summer transfer portal season couldn’t be a calamity. It had to be really fruitful. Lafferty felt, frankly, the responsibility of it all. What had happened and what was to come.
The team didn't have the experienced pitchers to withstand injuries and a historically hitter-led SEC. Meanwhile, the offense lagged behind most of the league. In the end, it just wasn't enough. Ole Miss had never finished worse than 13-17 under Bianco in the SEC. The Rebels lost their 17th conference game with nearly three weeks to go in the season.
“I 100 percent stood on that field and felt like it was my fault, that it’s on me to not let down everyone else,” said Lafferty, who played at Ole Miss and has been on the coaching staff since 2007. “The whole season I was trying to figure it out, but then it’s the summer, and you know those months are going to decide everything. It’s going to impact it all the next season.”
The Rebels had a highly ranked signing class, but the MLB Draft in July would decide its true shape. The transfer portal window was May 29 through July 13, and those reinforcements, as well as the current roster’s development, would set the ceiling for the 2024 season. It was a two-month mad dash to reset Ole Miss baseball.
Ole Miss had a comparable NIL program to other SEC West behemoths to help with talent, but the needs list was large compared to other conference teams. The Rebels needed arms and hitters and outfielders. The sheer quantity of needs greatly increased the difficulty level.
“In the past you recruit projectable high school sophomores, and you’d have competition, but it was nothing like this,” Lafferty said. “With the portal, everyone we were on, it was LSU, Texas A&M, Arkansas, Tennessee and then Florida about half the time.
“It’s everyone in your league. In the portal it’s mano a mano. It’s the whole league, and you’re giving it hell.”
When all signatures were in, Ole Miss signed seven portal transfers to go with five junior college players and 14 incoming freshmen. The MLB Draft claimed three of its top high school prospects, but in total, the top of the traditional recruiting class is expected to help, and Ole Miss added three pitchers and four position players from the portal for one of the top portal classes nationally.
Catcher Campbell Smithwick getting to campus alleviated one major issue if things had gone the other way. Even so, depth at what's usually a position of strength for the Rebels is limited.
It’s an inexact science until the games are played, but the Rebels believe they’ve sufficiently reloaded.
“You start getting kicked in the portal and you feel panic, but by the end of the summer, I was more than pleased with what we came away with. It was weeks of euphoria and the sky is falling all mixed together.”
In a pre-portal summer, Lafferty and fellow assistant Mike Clement would post up in Atlanta and Fort Myers and watch high school summer games from daylight to well after dark. It was exhausting in its own way, but there wasn’t an urgency like this.
This past summer, Lafferty watched only eight summer games featuring high school players. He scouted portal options in the collegiate summer leagues and played a perverse type of speed dating.
When a player entered the portal, coaches called, emailed, texted and direct messaged on every platform possible. Many would then get ghosted by the player. Offers and visits were extended. Some were accepted.Most were ignored.
This happened with dozens of players at once, making it impossible to truly have a pecking order. Put all the options on the list and see what happens.
“Twenty-four hours in the portal is a lifetime,” Lafferty said. “You’re prioritizing and rolling down the list. Take it or leave it. If you sit around, you’ll miss out on five guys waiting on one. You have to go fast and talk to everyone in the world. There's no wait and hold a spot.
“And you don’t know what’s going to be out there. When it first opens, there’s a flood in the first three or four days, but then you don’t know if anyone worth anything is getting in moving forward. It’s nerve racking.”
Ole Miss needed a lot of help, but restraint was needed along with the frenetic mix of introductions and potential visits. The Rebels couldn’t just take players. Each addition had to bring something to the roster that wasn’t already there or be an obvious choice to contribute meaningfully.
Three of its position players fit both categories: outfielder Treyson Hughes from Mercer, third baseman Andrew Fischer from Duke and third baseman Jackson Ross from Florida Atlantic.
Fischer hit 11 home runs and had a .999 OPS as a freshman despite breaking his hamate bone during the season. Hughes, a well above average outfielder, hit 25 home runs and batted .352 over the last two years at Mercer. Ross, who can play anywhere but center, catcher or shortstop, hit .345 with 14 home runs and 40 walks. All three made top transfer lists after signing with Ole Miss.
The portal wasn’t as filled with proven pitching options compared to the previous season, but Ole Miss relied on the plan to find what it didn’t already have on the roster. Left-handed pitching has long been an issue for the Rebels, and between transfers and junior college signees, Ole Miss is adding four older lefties to the staff.
Coastal Carolina transfer Liam Doyle was an obvious pickup once he showed interest in the Rebels. He held hitters to a .206 opposing batting average and had a 33 percent whiff rate on his mid 90s fastball, per D1Baseball. Doyle should be in the mix to start with his five-pitch mix.
Doyle is very valuable considering Hunter Elliott’s status is unknown for 2024. The former Freshman All-America left-hander had Tommy John in the spring, and Ole Miss isn’t factoring him into plans. Obviously, it's a huge lift if he does pitch at any point this season.
Ole Miss locked in on one plus pitch with its two other portal pickups: Arkansas State’s Kyler Carmack and Southeastern Louisiana’s Connor Spencer.
“The Carmack changeup is so valuable because we were slider heavy,” Lafferty said. “It's an outlier pitch. Spencer, if you did your homework, he had an oblique issue during the spring and that contributed to his command stuff. You watch him and it’s 93-96 with a ton of carry and swing and miss. There’s something here as soon as I saw it, another outlier that moves the needle.
"You go down worm holes and look at every kid and find things that fit what you’e going to do. Carmack has a plus, plus, plus pitch and started. Spencer has a different heater.”
Shortstop Jacob Gonzalez was a guarantee to sign professionally, and he went to the White Sox with the 15th overall pick. Ole Miss thought it found his potential replacement in Division II Tampa shortstop JD Urso, who committed to the Rebels in mid-June and reported to campus for the July summer school session.
The other shortstop in the equation was Oxford (Magnolia Heights), Mississippi, product Cooper Pratt, one of the top players nationally and seemingly a coin flip to show up at Ole Miss out of high school.
Pratt didn’t go on day one, giving the Rebels hope, but the Brewers plucked him in the sixth round on the second day of the draft. Due to the way the draft mechanics work, if a player is drafted in the first 10 rounds, he’s overwhelmingly likely to sign.
Urso, the day before, decided to leave the Rebels.
“It was pretty much 'Oh crap,'” Lafferty said. “On Sunday Urso comes in, day one of the draft and says he’s leaving to go back home. On Monday afternoon Pratt goes in the sixth round, and you know he’s gone. Those were our shortstops.
“We don’t just like the Pratt family, we love them. They are great people. The kid wanted to sign and play pro baseball. There’s an expectation for draft day and there’s the emotional side. That combination led him to get drafted where he did. He’s a solid second rounder normally. He wanted to play, and I’m genuine in that I’m happy for him.”
Prospects are aware of opportunities. They’ve been through the glitz and stadium tours. They want to play and showcase for the next level. So, when a team one year removed from the title and with a history of impact shortstops had an opening, one name looking for a change surfaced quickly.
Luke Hill, who is from Baton Rouge, played shortstop for Arizona State and hit .314 with 11 doubles and six home runs as a freshman. Hill got in the portal days before the deadline and committed to the Rebels following a weekend visit.
“Kids are aware of the position they are walking into,” Lafferty said. “Gonzalez is gone and then Pratt and it’s public on Urso. “Talking about fits, it’s more appealing to transfer from a good power five school and know you can walk in and likely play.”
Human nature leads to looking around at the competition, but the main lesson from the whirlwind summer of Reign, Celsius and “enough Diet Coke to kill someone,” is to only focus on the roster you can control.
With the new recruiting rules not allowing coaches to talk to prospects, even committed ones, outside of those signing in one year, it's all about immediate roster building.
The SEC has never been more competitive with NIL collectives and facilities and resources widening the gap compared to other baseball conferences. The competition and wins and losses are coming against teams you’ll see on the field in the spring.
“If you spend one second caring about another team, you’re losing time,” Lafferty said. “Some things just the way they are. LSU and Texas A&M are going to get their players. You have to get the players for you and then coach them. I have to put my best on the field and coach them up and have a better team than the other teams.
“I was a psycho this summer to make Ole Miss better. I truly think we did that. Now it’s time to coach and then play and then do it all over again.”
