College Baseball Impact Transfers
A blog by Will at Overdue Sports
In the new age of college athletics, the transfer portal is the most important piece to any recruiting class. High caliber players from all over the country jump ship and find new homes, and some of those guys take huge steps to become some of the best players in the country.
There are many more than just the few on this list, but these guys have already played huge roles in their teams’ success. Let’s dive into a couple of the most impactful transfers of the 2025 college baseball season so far.
Kuhio Aloy: BYU → Arkansas
It’s no surprise there is an Aloy brother on this list, the newly coined “Bash Braddahs” between Arkansas shortstop Wehiwa and his younger brother, Kuhio, who transferred to Fayetteville from BYU, Kuhio.
Since joining the Hogs, Aloy is slashing .419/.509/.838 with seven doubles, eight home runs, 35 RBIs, and just 18 strikeouts to 12 walks. Sure, Aloy has only DH’d this season, but what he has brought to the middle of the Arkansas lineup is unmatched across the country. Would you believe me if I told you he wasn’t in the lineup every day to start the season?
Aloy’s profile has always been a high-ceiling player, but his improvements over the last year have been outstanding. Dropping his strikeout% from 27.6% to 20.7% is a clear improvement, but the quality of contact is what I’ll be focusing on.
In 2024, Aloy had an average exit-velocity of 89.3 where 45.2% of his contact was over 95, while in 2025 his exit-velocity jumped to 93.9 with 60.8% is over 95. The up-tick in barrel% from 17.4% to 27.5% is the main cause of this, clearly finding more quality contact across at-bats.
Hitting more line drives has been the key for Kuhio as he bumped his line drive rate from 17.7% to 25%, and is a huge reason for his 9.25 at-bats to home run ratio which was 24.63 just a year ago.
One major adjustment is his patience at the plate. While the swing-and-miss is still there, Aloy is showing much more patience at the plate bumping up his walk% while lowering the strikeouts.
If these adjustments stay true through the season, and onto his draft year, Kuhio Aloy can be one of the premier bats in the college circuit for the 2026 draft.
Liam Doyle: Ole Miss → Tennessee
I wouldn’t be able to write this article without including arguably the best pitcher in college baseball, Liam Doyle.
After spending his 2023 campaign at Coastal Carolina, then moving to Ole Miss in 2024, Doyle now finds himself in Knoxville with the defending Na
tional Champions and consensus #1 team in the nation. The clear improvement for Doyle comes with his velocity, now sitting 95.1 and topping out at 99 while he averaged just 92.5 and topped out at 95 a year ago in Oxford.
Doyle leads the country in strikeouts with 53, is in the top-10 in ERA and WHIP with a 0.72 and 0.64, surrendering just three extra-base hits to this point, and has opposing batters hitting just .114.
All signs point to Doyle being the 1.01 in the 2025 MLB Draft this summer if this production continues, and based off his start against the #5 Florida Gators last weekend where he punched out six allowing just one run on three hits, one of which being a home run to Blake Cyr, it looks like he’ll continue to roll in SEC play.
Doyle took the mound last night against #8 Alabama in Tuscaloosa against arguably the second best offense in the SEC, and didn’t show what we’ve seen but his stats are not including that start.
Daniel Dickinson: Utah Valley → LSU
Daniel Dickinson was one of the most sought after transfers in the 2024 offseason, and packed his bags heading to Baton Rouge for the 2025 season.
So far, he’s been a huge piece of the Tigers offense slashing .368/.547/.721 with six doubles, six home runs, and 28 RBIs.
Dickinson coming into 2025 was a high-floor player, but some clear changes have been made to fit the LSU offensive approach and it’s already put a jump on his profile. The emphasis on line drives and lifting the ball has shown with his line drive% jumping from 21.1% to 27% while lowering his ground ball%.
The biggest adjustment I’ve seen is that Dicksinson is swinging less (44.7% - 35.8%) with a clear emphasis on walking and he’s bumped up his walk rate from 11.5% to 15.5% while lowering his strikeout rate from 9.5% to 7.2%.
He may not have the highest ceiling in the 2025 draft class, but Daniel Dickinson has become extremely polished already since joining the SEC and could be a mid-first round steal for an organization looking for a pro-ready middle infielder.
Ryland Zaborowski: Miami Ohio → Georgia
After being somewhat a journey-man through his career jumping from junior college, to Grand Canyon, to Miami (OH), and now with the Georgia Bulldogs, Ryland Zaborowski has exploded onto the college baseball scene this year.
Tied as the nation's leader in home runs with 12, second in the country in RBIs with 40, and currently is the leader in slugging percentage with a 1.079. Zaborowski through 20 games is slashing .444/.568/1.079 and his production has been outmatched by very few.
At first glance, there aren’t any massive adjustments made to Zaborowski’s approach between 2024 and 2025, the increase in walk% (16.5% - 17.3%) and decrease in both strikeout% and WHIFF have certainly played a part in what I would classify as a ‘refined approach.’
Flattening out his launch angle slightly has resulted in less pop-outs, less fly balls, and more line drives, paired with a massive increase in exit velocity from 89.7 with only 49% of contact hit 95+ to now an average exit velocity of 96.8 with 66.7% of his contact hit at 95+.
These slight changes paired with some much needed exit velocity boosts have made Ryland Zaborowski one of the premier power threats in college baseball.