Ole Miss’ Mike Bianco speaks in generalities about the transfer portal, player retention and MLB Draft
With the baseball portal opening June 3 and with the draft coming July 14-16, Ole Miss baseball coach Mike Bianco was reluctant – rightly so – to get into too many specifics about the roster construction about to take place for Ole Miss baseball, but Bianco did talk in some generalities with The Ole Miss Spirit.
“Once we got back from Hoover we did our exit interviews with each player and I thought they went very well,” Bianco said. “I am not going to go into individual names at this juncture because that is not fair to the kids. We have kids who have some decisions to make and those things are personal with those kids.
“I am not going to speculate on individual players, but I will say this – we anticipate a lot of retention, we are happy with who we expect to come back and we are going to be older and more experienced next season. It does not benefit the team, the players or the fans to discuss individuals yet. That information will come out organically through social media one piece at a time.”
Bianco said he and his Ole Miss staff, obviously, will be active in the transfer portal.
“Of course we are going to be active in the portal. There are some holes we have to fill on the mound and in the everyday lineup and the portal will be an important avenue in filling those holes,” Mike continued. “We are looking for specific types of players and will research the field thoroughly before making any offers. Again, it does not benefit the team or the fans to get too specific with that information right now. Just know we are going to be in the portal for our needs.”
Bianco was also in a positive frame of mind about the majority of the signees enrolling at Ole Miss and is only concerned about “a couple” of signees going pro.
“We signed a very talented class and do not expect to lose many to the draft, but we certainly know there are a couple who could easily take the professional money after the draft,” he added. “We think we have the potential, even if a couple go pro, to have a top 5 class enter school for next season.”
In the release the Ole Miss put out about Bianco returning for next season, there was some talk about staff changes. Bianco did not want to discuss that, but it’s already out in mainstream media that Mike is looking for a pitching coach to take that load off him and Carl Lafferty.
Bianco could not talk about any of that as the job has not been advertised by the university yet.
We did ask Mike about the potential to get pitchers Hunter Elliott and Xavier Rivas, both in throwing protocol after Tommy John surgery, back for the 2025 season.
“That will all depend on the draft. They both have professional baseball aspirations and where they are drafted will determine their futures,” Bianco closed. “Will it benefit them to go pro or return for another year of college ball? We won’t know that until after the draft.”
The post Ole Miss’ Mike Bianco speaks in generalities about the transfer portal, player retention and MLB Draft appeared first on On3.
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