Arkansas baseball head coach Dave Van Horn spoke to the media Tuesday about his program's offseason transfer portal haul, a class that will have the Diamond Hogs in the mix for another strong campaign during the 2025 season.
Following a 44-16 (20-10 SEC) season, the Razorbacks reloaded their roster with 10 transfer portal and six junior college additions. That group handed Arkansas a top-five transfer class in the country, according to 64analytics.
"I appreciate those guys coming to Arkansas because they all had many, many options," Van Horn said Tuesday. "There’s a lot involved when you’re talking about the transfer portal. Not only do the players need to pick the right school that really is in need at those positions. But there’s finances involved. In many cases here, these guys, they came here and they could have made more money other places."
Arkansas currently boasts a roster of 51 players, 11 more than the allowed maximum of 40 when pitchers toe the rubber for the first time in mid-February. Determining who is cut out for the SEC will be a key emphasis this fall, but Van Horn said he's just excited to see what his team has for now.
"Not really naming names, we feel like we plugged in some depth, some holes," Van Horn said. "We got a couple of experienced starting pitchers to mix in with our really good staff. Position-player wise, we brought in a couple of infielders, a couple of outfielders. Maybe three outfielders.
"So far, so good, you know. We’ve got to go out to practice and put them in game situations. We don’t expect it to be over-the-top good but guys have got to continue to get better."
Here's everything Van Horn said about his offseason additions, with notes on pitchers, infielders and outfielders:
Pitching Transfers:
With Freshman All-American right-hander Gabe Gaeckle and other experienced arms returning to Arkansas, many expected the Razorbacks to add one starting-caliber transfer to their staff.
Well, don't ever doubt pitching coach Matt Hobbs. The 2024 D1Baseball Assistant Coach of the Year flexed his pedigree to draw in two highly-touted lefties — East Carolina's Zach Root and Ohio State's Landon Beidelschies — during the offseason.
"Well, they want to pitch for Coach Hobbs," Van Horn said. "They like what they’ve seen from the development of our high school pitchers, or maybe even a guy like (Hagen) Smith, who turned down maybe $1 million coming out of high school and got $8 million. Appreciate those guys, but they had some options. Many, many, many options."
An ace for the Big 10 Buckeyes, Beidelschies started 15 games and led the pitching staff with 91 strikeouts in 84.2 innings pitched last season. He finished with a 4.15 ERA and had a career-high 12 punchouts against West Virginia on March 15.
"They could have gone to our league," Van Horn said. "We would have had to try to beat them, and you know, they came in here because they wanted to be a part of the Arkansas program. Like I said, be with Coach Hobbs, and I think they just wanted to be on a team with a great pitching staff, and that’s what we foresee."
Root — a 6-foot-1, 186-pound funky lefty – flashed his deception as East Carolina's Sunday starter to the tune of 76 strikeouts, 21 walks and an opponent batting average of .228. His low-to-mid 90 fastball and sweepy slider devastated left-handed hitters and helped keep his ERA to a lowly 3.56 in 2024.
Following in the footsteps of many great Arkansas left-handed pitchers, Root will dawn the No. 33 during the upcoming 2025 season.
“I have always had, for the most part, a lot of left-handed pitchers that have worn that," Van Horn said. "Nick Schmidt. Did Drew Smyly wear that number? Might have been another one in there. Might have been a couple more.
“It is a left-handed pitchers number in my eyes and he’s left-handed. Landon had already requested number 35 and he got it. Then I talk to Zach about it and he kind of knew there had been some guys wearing that that were pretty good. Didn’t want to throw that on him if he didn’t want to handle it, but he was good with it.”
Rounding out the transfer arms is former Oregon State righty Aiden Jimenez, who didn't play last year due to a torn UCL in the preseason that required Tommy John surgery, according to Van Horn.
Jimenez posted a 5.68 ERA in 22 games during the 2023 season and was in line to start for the Beavers in 2024 after accumulating a 1.15 ERA with the Chatham Anglers during summer ball the year prior.
"He won’t be good to go this fall," Van Horn said. "We’re wanting him to be good to go in the spring. He tweaked his elbow, so he had to get that fixed. He’s big, strong. He would’ve been their No. 2 or No. 1 pitcher if he would’ve been healthy. We’re hoping he can be healthy this year and we can either use him out of the pen or as a starter. If he’s not 100%, then we’ll get him ready for next year. He’s a talent."
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