What Does Virginia Tech Baseball Need In The Transfer Portal?

Josh Poslusny breaks down some key needs for Virginia Tech in the transfer portal.

BLACKSBURG, VA — John Szefc during Virginia Tech's rain delay during game two against NC State, 2026. | Virginia Tech Athletic

BLACKSBURG, Va. — With the college baseball transfer portal in full swing, Virginia Tech has entered into the offseason with a couple of clear needs if they want to appropriately reload for another regionals run, or potentially further. The Hokies had a relatively young roster, especially in the lineup, so they could swing for the fences on some big names in certain spots.

The Hokies have lost the following players to the transfer portal:

LHP Chase Swift
LHP Madden Clement
RHP Ben Weber
C Anderson French

Clement and Swift are in the portal but are also draft-eligible and could be using the portal for leverage when looking to sign with MLB teams. Time will tell as we get further and further into the off-season. Ben Weber has committed to Xavier and Anderson French is not somebody that I envision returning.

They will also lose Henry Cooke, Sam Gates and Owen Petrich from the every-day batting order, along with the loss of right-handed pitchers Brett Renfrow and likely Griffin Stieg to the MLB draft, with guys like Luke Craytor, Brendan Yagesh and Brody Roe, among a few others, running out of eligibility.

Right now, the Hokies roster construction looks something like this, not including incoming freshmen/JUCO players, who likely won't see a ton of playing time — with the exception of a few names.

C: 1
INF: 5
OF: 4
Starting Pitchers: 3
Relief Pitchers: 4

A college baseball team needs three catchers at minimum. The infield has enough bodies, but the corner spots are questionable with two shortstops (Clay Grady, Pete Daniel), one second baseman (Ethan Ball) and two utility guys (Hudson Lutterman, Ethan Gibson). Somebody would have to take a DH role — likely Daniel or Lutterman.

As of now, this is what I project the lineup along with starting pitchers and a few bullpen arms to look like:

1. Clay Grady - SS
2. Ethan Ball - 2B
3. Ethan Gibson - 1B
4. CJ Oxendine - C
5. Pete Daniel - DH
6. Sam Grube - RF
7. Hudson Lutterman - 3B
8. Nick Locurto - LF
9. Willie Hurt - CF

The Hokies could field an entire lineup that looks relatively strong top to bottom. The problem lies in two places.

First, there is a career 52 home runs returning. The Hokies hit 75 dingers last season, and that was the fourth-lowest mark in the ACC, beating out Cal and Clemson — who both hit 72 — along with a historically low-power Boston College team, who hit just 46.

The second problem is at catcher, where there is a lack of experience, though the coaching staff is very high on CJ Oxendine.

Pitching wise, this is roughly what things look like.

Friday: Logan Eisenreich
Saturday: Ethan Grim
Sunday: Preston Crowl or Aiden Robertson

Bullpen 1: Aiden Robertson or Preston Crowl
Bullpen 2: Danny Lazaro

The Hokies have a huge lack of depth on the mound, along with a lack of proven arms.

They also have a group of freshmen from 2025, Tyler Stone, Austin Dean and Jake Wise.

Together, that totals 191 innings that these arms ate up last year. You can expect Grim and Eisenreich to eat up 20 more innings each, bringing them both around 75 and the total to 231.

The Hokies threw 484 innings in 2026.

They had 10 arms throw at least 22 innings in 2026, and only four of them are set to return.

After spending 600 words giving context, here's my list of what the Hokies need to attack.

C: 1 — must be a power capable bat
INF: 0
OF: 1 — must be a power-capable bat
Starting Caliber Pitchers: 1
Relief Arms: 4+

These things will change as the Hokies get further and further into the off-season. I will rewrite an update to this article in about three weeks after the transfer portal closes.