Alabama Baseball Catcher Will Plattner Voted Third Captain of Rob Vaughn Era

Plattner started in 23 games during his junior season in 2025, batting .264 in 87 at-bats.

Will Plattner (17) and Anthony Papio (0). | Alabama Athletics

When Rob Vaughn took over as the Alabama baseball head coach in 2023, he brought a tradition with him from his previous stop at Maryland wherein the team captain wears the jersey No. 3 to represent his leadership role and the three pillars of the program: toughness, ownership and grit.

Rising senior catcher Will Plattner was voted by his teammates to wear the number in the upcoming 2026 season, which officially begins in February, and announced as the new captain via the team on social media Tuesday morning. He is the third captain of the Vaughn era in Tuscaloosa; the previous two, outfielders Evan Sleight and Kade Snell, had their eligibility expire after their first seasons with the captaincy.

Plattner, who transferred to play for the Crimson Tide after spending the 2023 campaign in the SEC at Ole Miss, played in 26 games and started 23 times this past season. He did not play in 2024, and Alabama's catching situation will look a lot different in the spring than it did in 2025.

The Illinois native hit .264 with 20 runs scored, 13 runs batted in and one home run during his first go-around in crimson and white. He was the best offensive option at the catcher position in that stretch. The unit will return Luke Vaughn from injury, also adding former Southern Illinois backstop Johnny Lemm from the transfer portal this offseason, to round out the group of contenders for the starting spot that also includes Plattner and Brady Neal, who won a national championship at LSU in 2023.

Crimson Tide assistant coach Anthony Papio was the first wearer of the No. 3 with its added significance attached. He wore it during his collegiate career while playing for the Terrapins. He's now gotten to coach all three of the number's Alabama wearers to date.

"You're the representation of what it means to play in our program," Papio told BamaCentral in April about what the distinction means while discussing Snell's then-ongoing tenure as the team captain.

The three players to be given the No. 3 since Vaughn became Alabama's coach have all been position players. Snell pitched in 2024, but not in 2025. Another thing they have in common? All three transferred into the program. Two of them, Snell and Plattner, started their college careers playing for another SEC school. Plattner batted .300 in seven games as a Rebel with four runs scored.