There’s been a perpetual feeling around Georgia baseball for the past few decades that the Bulldogs have underachieved. But Wes Johnson’s first year-and-a-half has gone a long way towards changing that.
Johnson guided Georgia to a 17-13 league record, a coveted regional hosting spot and then, a regional victory before the Bulldogs were bounced in the Raleigh super regional. It’s hard to believe in a state as stocked with high-school talent as Georgia, but the Bulldogs’ super regional appearance was their first since 2008, which was their last College World Series appearance.
Johnson, who was the pitching coach for the Twins until leaving for the same position at LSU in July 2022, is a big believer in analytics.
“It’s everything for us,” Johnson said. “We don’t do anything subjectively here. So everything we do is gonna be based on numbers and matchups.”
Johnson leaned on those heavily to land the No. 5 transfer portal class, according to Baseball America. The Bulldogs have so much age and depth across the board, it’s nearly dizzying. Thirteen players (including JUCO transfers) had at least 100 collegiate plate appearances last season, with 10 getting 200 more more. Fourteen pitchers on the roster threw at least 15 innings, with a dozen showing at least 30.
Johnson spoke to the attractiveness of his pitch in the portal.
“We use a very complex system of showing players how they get better, without getting into everything there,” Johnson said. “We were breaking that down and at the end of the day yes, those guys are going into the portal, they want different things, but most of them want a chance to play professional baseball. You look at some of the player values that we brought up last year and we sold that and were able to talk about it.
“And obviously we were able to talk to guys about Tre Phelps, we were able to talk about pitchers. When I took this job, we had three guys on the roster who’d thrown five innings in a game,” Johnson said. “One of those is Charlie Goldstein and the other two had only done it one time. So you’re able to look at a pitcher and say, ‘Hey, we took Leighton Finley and were able to stretch him into a starter, and we were able to take Kolten Smith and stretch him into being a starter.”
And thus Georgia will enter the season inside the top 10 of a lot of preseason rankings.
“That just means you’ve got a chance to be good, right?” Johnson said. “That’s what all the preseason hype means. Now you’ve gotta go do it. But, it’s our league. You’re not gonna hide anywhere in this league. People think you’re supposed to be good, they’re gonna give you publicity and so forth. I don’t know if you can every say anybody in the SEC’s ever been an underdog. So it’s not like you’re gonna hide. You’d better get used to it.”
It’s hard to believe, but Georgia’s never made it past the regional round for consecutive seasons. Perhaps this is the year, but the Bulldogs are shooting for more than that.
“The chatter in the locker room, the chatter in the clubhouse, is just, ‘Hey, we’re going to win it all, we’re the best team in the country,” outfielder Nolan McCarthy, who transferred in from Kentucky, said. “And we fully believe that. On paper, you look at the talent, you look at all that, it’s unbelievable. It’s all about how we do it between the lines.”
THE LINEUP
Johnson’s offseason goal was to build lineup depth, and it’s hard to imagine he could have had more success than he did. The Bulldogs landed nine hitters who had 180 plate appearances at other D1 schools last season, many of whom performed at an all-conference-type level at their previous stops.
“Part of the construction of this roster, from an offensive standpoint, was the ability to to have different lineups and matchups and guys play different positions,” Johnson says. “So yeah, you’ll see a 95%-lineup-construction of analytics.”
“We had a really good idea, we knew we were gonna have to ‘Moneyball,’ it,” Johnson continued. “You’re never gonna replace Charlie Condon. You’re never gonna replace Corey Collins, But can you recreate them and redistribute them 1 to 9 rather than being so top-heavy.”
Now comes the challenge of keeping them all happy.
“It’s like I tell people, the best glue guy, his name is called ‘winning,’” Johnson said. “And when you’re winning, everybody’s a glue guy. When you’re losing, it’s hard to find a glue guy. You hold that through the success they have. … It’s a challenge whenever you create so much lineup flexibility. Yeah, it’ll be a challenge. But I think our guys are older and more mature. They’ve got a clear and concise goal on what they won’t and we’ll go get it.”
Georgia’s got a glut of experienced infielders and it remains to be seen who plays where. That’ll be determined largely by who’s on the mound.
The headliner is one of Johnson’s returnees, Tre Phelps, who ranks 19th on MLB Pipeline’s prospects for the 2025 draft. He missed time with injury early last year but came back to be a huge part of Georgia’s lineup. Phelps played first, third, left, right and DH last year and could wind up playing all over the field again after batting .343/.403/.686 in league play.
One of the few constants is Kolby Branch, who transferred from Baylor (where he was a freshman all-American) before last season and returns to man short. A career .295/.397/.524 hitter with 23 home runs and 99 RBIs over two seasons, Branch fielded .959 for the Bulldogs last year and .963 in the New England Collegiate Baseball League over the summer.
Slate Alford is another former transfer who returns and like Phelps, can play a lot of spots after starting at first, second, third and DH last season. Alford is a career .274/.370/.539 hitter with 27 home runs between Georgia and Mississippi State, Alford hit .254/.338/.476 with eight home runs in the SEC before making the Athens all-regional team in the postseason.
“Slate didn’t get drafted, he had an opportunity to go play,” Johnson said. “I don’t want to get into all that but he could have signed. I think right now it’s kind of a chip on his shoulder. He’s come back, he wants to show people he can do it in this league again. Then there’s going to be no doubt about his opportunity in professional baseball.
“It was a little more of, ‘hey, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder. I want to show that I can get a little faster if that’s what you think you want me to do. I can not chase as much at the plate if that’s what you need me to do. And then next year, meaning this year, there’s going to be no doubt.”
A pair of new transfers, Ryland Zabrowski (Miami-Ohio) and Ryan Black (Texas Arlington) are likely infield starters at first and third, respectively.
Black had a hand injury in the offseason but Johnson said he was recovering well and was hopeful he’d play the opening weekend. He hit .308/.413/.490 over 525 plate appearances in two years at UTA.
Zabrowski, a career .288/.395/.563 hitter in 595 plate appearances over three seasons between Grand Canyon and Miami, may be the DH. He mashed 20 home runs in 2023 at Miami.
Wofford transfer Daniel Jackson, a right-handed hitter, and returnee Henry Hunter, a lefty, will split catching duties. Jackson split time between the Northwoods and Cape Cod leagues this summer after winning Southern Conference freshman of the year honors.
Hunter, whom Johnson said is one of the few players who’s probably locked into one position, was a part-timer last year after hitting .286/.407/.474 over 165 plate appearances at UAB in 2023.
Three transfers—Devin Obee (Duke), Nolan McCarthy (Kentucky) and Robbie Burnett (UNC Asheville)—figure to start in the outfield. One of Johnson’s goals was to get better defensively there and he was thrilled at what Georgia did to address that.
“I think there will be times this year that from a defensive perspective, we’ll have the best in our league. … Even if we move Robbie into the infield and play him at second, the other options that we have out there are really, really good defenders,” Johnson said in early February.
McCarthy, who played 47 games in center for Kentucky, plus 10 in left and seven in right, spoke to the talent of his teammates in February.
“There’s a lot of comfort in knowing, hey, if I can’t get to a ball, Devin can,” McCarthy says.
Obee hit .269/.361/.540 with 25 home runs in three years at Duke, 16 of them coming that final year. His late-career development seemed to translate to Athens this winter when he transferred over the semester break.
“Couldn’t be happier right now with what we’ve got with Devin Obee,” Johnson said in February. “In a short amount of time, he looks phenomenal.
Christian Adams, like Burnett, is another lefty transfer bat. He hit .320/.420/.500 over 328 plate appearances in two years at Florida Atlantic. An injured hamstring cost him time in the fall but Johnson said he was “swinging the bat extremely well,” in February.
The Bulldogs got outfielder Erik Parker, a Georgia high-schooler, through the draft after the Dodgers took him in Round 15.
A late-winter surprise was the return of Dylan Goldstein, a graduate transfer who played for the Bulldogs last year. A court ruling that granted Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia opened the door for Goldstein to potentially add another year of eligibility.
Goldstein was practicing with the team in February though not yet cleared to play and not listed on the Bulldogs’ official roster. He’s a career .302/.436/.588 hitter over 756 plate appearances between Georgia and FAU.
THE PITCHING
It seems that hard-throwing guys want to play at Georgia. Johnson had at least 18 clocked at 95 miles an hour or more at some point in the offseason.
“Top to bottom on our pitching staff, we’ve got guys with unbelievable stuff,” McCarthy said.
Johnson spoke to the situation over the winter.
“On the pitching side, we have stuff that nobody in the country has,” he said. “Nobody. Big league teams. Any other college teams obviously. When we’re able to roll that out, we’ll know if a player is serious about development when they come on a visit,” he told Marc Weiszer of the Athens Banner-Herald.
Righties Kolton Smith and Leighton Finley should be the ball to start on opening weekend. Smith is the No. 47 prospect for the 2025 MLB Draft. He took on a bigger workload last season after hiring 25 2/3 innings with a 5.26 ERA. He’ll need to work on keeping the ball in the yard after he allowed a home run 5.8% of the time.
“If you get that (prospect) label put on you, a lot of pressure comes with it and the target is really, really big,” Johnson said. “And teams are gonna come after you. They’re gonna have a really good plan. They’re gonna study you up and down. Kolten has the mental capacity for that. … Time will tell.”
Finley also upped his workload (and shaved over two runs off his ERA) after a 27 1/3-inning, 6.26 ERA freshman season in 2023, pre-Johnson.
Johnson said he “hopes” that lefty Charlie Goldstein will be ready for the season. Goldstein, who tried 24 in January, has battled arm injuries throughout his career but looked good when healthy last season.
Matthew Hoskins, who had a 4.12 ERA with 24 strikeouts and 10 walks in 2023, could also see starts.
Alabama transfer Alton Davis II is one of the few bullpen lefties on the staff and will be used in a lot of roles. He made 46 appearances at Alabama, throwing 67 1/3 innings of a 5.48 ERA with 70 strikeouts.
“We’re stretching Alton out,” Johnson said. “If you can look at what I’ve done with pitching, I don’t have a true closer. I don’t think there’s such a thing in college baseball. … You look at the way we did some things last year, a guy would close for three innings. We’re stretching Alton out. We’re not going to limit him just to a closing role. You could see him start, you could see him in the middle of the game, you could see him at the back end.”Johnson says that Ohio State transfer Zach Brown “has been elite” and terms him “the Swiss army knife” of the staff. Brown has a heavy ground-ball tilt (32% last year), which should come in handy in pitching at Foley Field, which can be a bit of a launching pad. Returnee Zach Harris is in his second year in Athens after hurling 36 2/3 innings with a 7.85 ERA the prior year at Georgia Southern. He’ll be part of a slew of righties Johnson will use in relief.
VCU transfer Brian Curley threw more collegiate innings (78 1/3) than anyone on the staff last year. The Pirates selected him in Round 16 of last year’s draft after he was a first-team all-Atlantic 10 pick.
Penn transfer Brian Zeldin was a big find for Johnson last year. This will be his sixth year of college baseball, having compiled a 4.53 ERA over 101 1/3 innings with 96 strikeouts and six saves, all those coming for Georgia last season.
Ole Miss transfer JT Quinn, will be key bullpen depth. Staying healthy has been an issue in his past, but Quinn logged 74 2/3 innings with a 7.35 ERA and 91 strikeouts for the Rebels.
Returnee DJ Radtke, who’s thrown 19 1/3 career innings with 27 strikeouts and a 5.12 ERA for Georgia over two seasons, is another experienced bullpen righty.
Paul Farley didn’t pitch for Georgia last year, but might this year. Johnson said he was hurt when he arrived at Georgia, but said he’d “been exceptional” in off-season work.
McCarthy mentioned Georgia State transfer Davis Chastain, who had mixed effectiveness his first two seasons (7.84 ERA in 43 innings, but 64 strikeouts) as a guy he hated to face.
“His fastball really hops up. … He’s got that big breaking ball,” McCarthy said.
POTENTIAL STRENGTHS
In a league swimming with old, talented players, it’s possible nobody has as many of them as Georgia. The offensive mix-and-match options alone, between the lefty/righty balance and position eligibility, make the Bulldogs a matchup nightmare, especially late into weekend series. Foley Field plays as a home-run friendly park and Georgia has eight players (nine, if Dylan Goldstein plays) who reached double-figure homers a year ago. Outfield defense will improved. Oh, and there’s Phelps, a potential SEC player-of-the-year-type hitter. On the hill, Johnson has 14 arms who three at least 15 innings a year ago, led by two potential Friday-ace-type-guys in Smith and Finley, not to mention Charlie Goldstein if he can stay healthy.
POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES
Having transfers sounds great until something goes wrong; with 15 of them who played major roles elsewhere last year, does everyone always stay happy? Does it become an issue if someone isn’t? Somehow, with all the arms, Johnson managed just four lefties on the staff; only two appear to be major factors and that includes Charlie Goldstein, who’s always a health risk. And with all the moving parts, can the Bulldogs find defensive continuity?
FINAL ANALYSIS
Johnson has done an unbelievable job heading into his second season. On paper, the Bulldogs don’t lack much—if anything, other than pitching lefties—but the fact Georgia’s not had sustained success in a while, plus the fact that Johnson’s not a household coaching name in a conference full of them, probably knocks the Bulldogs down a spot or two in the preseason rankings. Unless chemistry becomes an issue, Georgia may have the depth everywhere to paper over any issues. So, mark the Bulldogs down as legitimate national title contenders.