Nick Mingione Aiming for 'Selfless' Baseball From Kentucky's New-Look Roster

Behind a cast of transfer portal additions and emerging pieces, the Wildcats have their eyes set on kicking Kentucky's NCAA Tournament drought.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — In just eight days, Kentucky baseball will begin its quest to snap a five-year streak of not reaching the NCAA Tournament. 

The road — as always — will be extremely tough. For starters, 17 games will come against teams ranked in the preseason top 10, with a slew of other touted foes in the SEC set to oppose the Bat Cats. 

Coach Nick Mingione is entering year seven at the helm, and he's bringing a much different team to Kentucky Proud Park. A grand total of 12 players were brought in via the transfer portal, most of whom will replace veteran talent that graduated or headed to the MLB draft after the 2022 season. 

On Wednesday, Mingione spoke at UK's Media Day, setting the stage for what could be a make-or-break season in Lexington. 

"At this point, I would say they're selfless. They want to win for Kentucky," he said. "They understand 'hey, this could be my last ride.' We have a bunch of guys that — I think our dugout is going to bring some energy. I think there will be some times where i'll have to pull the reigns back a bit, but it's not going to be because of a lack of passion."

Setting the tone as a veteran's veteran and a leader's leader is Maysville, Ky. native and touted right-hander Darren Williams. 

The Eastern Kentucky transfer is about to begin his seventh and final collegiate go-round. He was totaling his finest year yet last season, until a torn UCL in his throwing elbow derailed his transition into the weekend starting rotation in SEC play. Williams finished his shortened season with a dominant 0.93 earned run average and 31 strikeouts in just 29 innings. 

Now, the "old man" of the team is back to steady the pitching staff and the dugout as a whole, though it's unclear whether he'll slot into the rotation or go back to the bullpen. 

👀 @Dub_Williams24 back on the bump. pic.twitter.com/iwGeCa2oV9

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) January 28, 2023

"He's a guy we're going to count on," Mingione said of Williams. "Depending on what kind of role, we'll see. We got another week this week, but I know this about Darren, he's selfless, and he'll do whatever. Whether he starts out of the bullpen, we work him back into the rotation — depending how he feels, time will tell." 

He'll flank four righties who enter the fray via the portal, most notably Division III product Logan Martin, someone Mingione says will pitch on weekends for the Wildcats.

"Baseball's such a cool sport that we can go in the portal and grab a guy out of a Division III school and he can come right in and make an impact in the SEC," he said.

Adding depth on the staff — which owned a poor 4.89 ERA last season — was important for UK, as it had to replace three of the four pitchers who totaled the most innings in 2022 — Tyler Guilfoil, Sean Harney and Daniel Harper. 

Redshirt freshman Travis Smith — ranked as a top-100 MLB draft prospect by Perfect Game in 2022 — is one of those arms expected to contribute, as he's returning from arm surgery, but is currently throwing mid-90's with a "good" breaking ball, per Mingione. 

"We're counting on him to fill one of those starter roles. Whether its mid-week or weekend, time will tell," he said.  

Speaking of filling roles, insert an entirely brand new starting lineup. All nine of Kentucky's position players who played in 30 or more games last season are gone. That equates to needing to replace 87.7 percent of the team's hits and 86.8 percent of the team's total plate appearances from a year ago. 

Starting spots will mostly be filled by transfers, expect behind the plate. Redshirt sophomore Devin Burkes. 

In 20 games, Burkes raked for a .378 batting average, including three home runs, four doubles and 10 runs batted in. During Kentucky's improbable SEC Tournament run in Hoover, Ala. last May, he hit .429. 

"You guys remember his emergence last year at the end of the year, he started catching for us, had some big hits, big at-bats. He's a much improved player and ready for his turn," Mingione said of the catcher. 

"I've never been a part of a championship team that didn't have a championship catcher," he said. "He's an amazing catcher, he's an amazing leader, but like, he's a winner, this guy is a winner." 

#TBT - Run on @Devin_Burkes at your own risk. pic.twitter.com/0xFGGdsUcH

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) January 26, 2023

Around the infield, veteran transfer Hunter Gilliam (Longwood) is expected to man the first base spot, Grant Smith (Incarnate Word) seeks to replace the crafty Ryan Ritter at shortstop while Isaiah Byars (North Florida) appears to be a fit for the open third base position.

Second base could feature a rarity on the roster — a player who bided his team and is now facing a reward of playing time. 

Émilien Pitre saw just four at-bats in 2022. Now a sophomore, the Canadian is expected to take on a severely larger workload. 

"We've added guys, but we've also got guys in our program who've gotten better, guys like Émilien Pitre — who played behind Ritter and didn't get the opportunity because he had a gold-glover in front of him," Mingione said. "He's much improved and he's playing as well as anybody on our team right now." 

In the outfield, Ryan Waldschmidt — ranked as a top-10 transfer in the SEC by D1Baseball — will likely man one of the corners, while Eastern Kentucky transfer Kendal Ewell looks to continue the trend of success coming out of the Richmond-Lexington pipeline. 

Mingione noted that center field is still up for grabs, as sophomore Nolan McCarthy and senior Western Kentucky transfer Jackson Gray are both impressing in the lead-up to the season. 

.@NolanMcCarthy9 with a no-doubt two-run #BigBlueBomb in today’s scrimmage. #GingerMissile pic.twitter.com/E1aRYS0CWx

— Kentucky Baseball (@UKBaseball) February 5, 2023

"Both those guys I feel totally comfortable — I think our players would tell you the same thing — if either of those guys are in center field, there's going to be a total piece there. Those guys can play that position at a really good level."

At the plate, Mingione isn't certain about the identity of his team offensively, but he's seeking aggression. 

With that, strikeouts tend to follow. Last season, UK struck out in 25 percent of its at-bats, a horrid number. Finding that blend of attacking a pitching staff while not fanning at much could be the key to stacking runs and wins.

"What i'm looking for is mass chaos," Mingione said. "We're talking about stealing, hit-and-running, bunting, two-strike bunting, you name it. Going first to third, first to home, we're just going to be super aggressive. We're going to force our opponents to make plays. We're going to do a good job with two strikes, we're going to strike out less, that's an area we've tried to improve on from a year ago."

For Kentucky and Mingione, everything boils down to kicking the postseason skid. Late magic helped the Cats finish 33-26, but it wasn't enough to play past the SEC Tourney. 

That "not enough" narrative is the top concern that UK's aiming to kick to the wayside come the end of May.

"At the end of the year, two of the last three years we've been one or two wins away. Quite frankly, i'm tired of that. Let's be five or six games up like we were in '17 and we're sitting here talking about 'are we gonna be a national seed or are we just going to be a regional seed?' That's the goal." 

Reaching that goal begins on Feb. 17, as a three-game series at Elon opens the 2023 campaign. First pitch at Latham Park in Elon, N.C. is set for 4 p.m. EST. 

Wildcats Today will have coverage of Kentucky baseball during the 2023 campaign.

More on Kentucky's transfer portal additions HERE.

Kentucky's schedule is projected to be one of the toughest in the SEC. More HERE.

You can find Kentucky's entire 2023 schedule here.

Want the latest on national football and basketball recruiting, including Cats targets? Head over to SI All-American for the latest news, blogs, and updates about the nation's best prospects.

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