Position Needs for Vanderbilt Baseball in the Transfer Portal – Sports Illustrated

The streak is over and the offseason is now officially in its beginning stages for Vanderbilt baseball.
The Commodores were left out of this year’s NCAA Tournament after posting a record of 33025 and a RPI ranking of 72nd in the country. Vanderbilt won its first round game of the SEC Tournament with a win over Kentucky, but lost in the second round to Florida. With missing out on the 64-team field, Vanderbilt lost its 19-year regional streak. It was the longest in college baseball.
Now, Vanderbilt is beginning what is a very important offseason for this program. The program has taken a step back from what it used to be and there will be pressure on head coach Tim Corbin to get his Commodores back to the championship standard that has been established over the past two decades.
With that being said, Vanderbilt will need to reshape its roster with the transfer portal this summer. Here are the positions Vanderbilt needs to address in the transfer portal this offseason.
Pitching
This is the most glaring need of Vanderbilt’s roster and it is not even close. Vanderbilt needs pitching more than anything else.
The 2026 season saw Vanderbilt rack up pitching injuries in its starting rotation and in its bullpen. Austin Nye – who was projected to be the Saturday starter – had his season ended with injury before the calendar flipped to March. The Commodores also had a season-ending injury to relief pitcher England Bryan. Additionally, there were preseason injuries to Matthew Shorey and Miller Green, who eventually saw the mound for the last few weeks of the season.
All the injuries set up for younger arms such as Tyler Baird and Wyatt Nadeau to pitch in high-leverage situations time and time again. The problem was there was no college pitching experience between the two heading into this spring.
The experience they gained may help going into 2027, but it will not solve the pitching woes all together. Vanderbilt will have to add at least one, if not, two bonafide starting pitchers in the portal.
If that happens, the weekend rotation likely would be Connor Fennell, Austin Nye and a starter added from the transfer portal.
If Vanderbilt adds a second starter from the portal, that would certainly help as well and certainly serve as backup if pitching injuries were to happen again. 
With added starting pitchers from the portal, that will naturally put arms like Baird and Nadeau in the bullpen and thereby build the depth of the bullpen. If Vanderbilt adds relief pitching through the portal, too, it would not hurt.
An Infield Piece
Vanderbilt baseball has a good core for its infield set up for the future with Ryker Waite at shortstop, Brodie Johnston as third base and Tommy Goodin at first base. But Vanderbilt is losing a valuable piece to its defense and its batting lineup with Mike Mancini’s departure.
Mancini was a veteran presence on a Vanderbilt roster that had plenty of young talent in 2026. Mancini finished the season tied with Johnston for the team lead in home runs with 15 and was third on the team in batting average at .305.
It may not be the most important need, but Vanderbilt would be smart to find someone to fill Mancini’s spot to sure up the infield depth. Carter Johnstone could be an option Corbin and his staff looks at to plug in and fill that spot, but going fishing for an infielder would be wise as well.
Left-Handed Bats
With the departure of Logan Johnstone and likely departure of Mancini, Vanderbilt is losing two of its most important left-handed bats on the roster. That does leave Rustan Rigdon and Ryker Waite as switch hitters on the roster. Left-hander Will Hampton’s role should increase next season as well.
Tommy Goodin and Carter Johnstone are other left-handed bats that will be on the roster next season assuming Vanderbilt keeps them. 
The question becomes how impactful will guys like Hampton and Johnstone be at filling the holes Mancini and Logan Johnstone are going to leave. That will be something the coaching staff will have to evaluate.
But if there are veteran left-handed bats that enter the transfer portal, Vanderbilt should entertain the idea of adding at least one of them.
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Graham Baakko is a writer for Vanderbilt Commodores On SI, primarily covering football, basketball and baseball. Graham is a recent graduate from the University of Alabama, where he wrote for The Crimson White, WVUA-FM, WVUA 23 as he covered a variety of Crimson Tide sports. He also covered South Carolina athletics as a sportswriting intern for GamecockCentral.
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