Cal Sports Report

Cal Baseball: Dominic Smaldino Transferring to a Big 12 School

Smaldino is the third Golden Bears infielder to transfer to a school that reached the NCAA tournament this past season
Jake Curtis|
Dominic Smaldino
Dominic Smaldino | Photo by Danny Karnik, GTAA

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California Golden Bears

Nearly all of Cal’s starting infield from the 2025 season has departed to other schools by way of the transfer portal.

First baseman Dominic Smaldino, who led Cal in RBIs this past season, became the third starting Cal infielder to enter the transfer portal, and Smaldino has committed to Arizona State, according to Baseball America and other sites.

Smaldino, who was a sophomore this past season, started 54 games for Cal in 2025. He hit .277, was second on the team in home runs with 11 and had 46 RBIs, which was seven more than anyone else on the team. He also scored 48 runs, which tied for the team lead.

Cal shortstop PJ Moutzouridis, who was a Pac-12 all-conference selection in 2024 as a freshman, is also transferring to Arizona State, while Golden Bears second baseman Jarren Advincula, a 2025 second-team all-ACC pick as a sophomore, is transferring to another ACC school, Georgia Tech.

Arizona State and Georgia Tech both played in the NCAA tournament this year.

Advincula hit .342 this past season, with six homers, 33 RBIs, a .506 on-base percentage and 13 steals in 15 attempts in 2025.

Moutzouridis had a .270 batting average, along with three home runs, 31 RBIs, a .329 on-base percentage and 10 steals in 13 tries this season.

The only member of Cal’s starting infield who has not entered the transfer portal is third baseman Cade Campbell, who was a third-year sophomore this past season when he hit .313 with eight home runs and 39 RBIs.

The Bears finished the 2025 season with a 24-31 record, including 9-21 in the ACC, and they won two games in the single-elimination ACC tournament before being eliminated by Georgia Tech in the quarterfinals.

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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