Gators Baseball Lands 2024 ASUN Freshman of the Year in Transfer Portal

The Florida Gators successfully recruited their fourth player, a star from the ASUN, from the transfer portal on Thursday, June 20.

Gators new center fielder Kyle Jones / Nigel Cook/News-Journal / USA TODAY

Former Stetson center fielder Kyle Jones committed to the Gators on Thursday, making him fourth transfer from the portal for Florida in the upcoming recruiting class. 

Jones is a 6-foot-3, 170-pound freshman from Athens, GA. and played high school at North Oconee High School, where he was a two-time state champion. 

In his freshman year at Stetson, Jones slashed an impressive .355/.459/.476 and racked up 88 hits, five homers and 32 RBI across 62 starts. 

Jones should also be a breath of fresh air for the Gators, who struck out far too often this past season. Jones only struck out 27 times in 248 at-bats as a freshman.

Just for comparison, Jac Caglianone struck out 26 times in the same number of at-bats. 

As a result of his outstanding debut season, Jones earned the ASUN Freshman of the Year award, was named to the Third Team All-ASUN and became an unanimous selection to the ASUN All-Freshman Team. 

Jones will also bring speed both on the base paths and in the outfield to Gainesville. He stole 23 bases in 2024. The Gators only had 43 stolen bases as a team during this past season. 

On the other side of the ball, he possesses great speed and length to roam the outfield. For his defensive efforts in 2024, Jones became a Rawling Gold Glove finalist. 

Jones was the only freshman finalist for the award.

How his game transfers to the SEC will be a question mark this offseason. But against SEC competition in 2024, Jones hit .312 with a homer in 16 at-bats. 

Huge addition to the transfer portal as Stetson CF Kyle Jones goes in. It's every bit that of a 'plus' runner w/an infinitely projectable frame + borderline elite bat-to-ball skill. He'll be in CF for a blue-blood program in 2025.

2026 Draft-elig.pic.twitter.com/8bUJ2twX8s

— Joe Doyle (@JoeDoyleMiLB) June 10, 2024

Landing Jones in the transfer portal is a massive move for the Gators, who are set to lose outfielder Tyler Shelnut due to eligibility and potentially Ty Evans to the MLB Draft next month. 

Jones joins Blake Cyr, Landon Stripling and Justin Nadeau as the transfers Florida has landed in the portal during the 2025 recruiting cycle.

With the Gators set to lose some of their best players this offseason, Kevin O’Sullivan has done a great job of getting into the portal early and restructuring/retooling the team for another World Series run in 2025.