I think he'll be back.
People posting on this board are probably the biggest UK baseball fans on the Internet, so I won't be adding anything that you all haven't covered. I thought there was an undeniable jump in terms of quality wins this year -- 12 top 25 RPI wins is more than enough for a team to get in the tournament -- so that's what makes it so disappointing that they still finished 12th in the league. On paper, it was also a top 20 (I think 17th?) strength of schedule. There were some real positives this season. Still, this is a team that wasn't guaranteed to make the SEC Tournament until the final day of the season.
I don't think anyone in the baseball program is happy with the results. As you all know, the biggest PR battle this program is going to face is the roster construction. Whether it be guys who didn't fit, perhaps guys who weren't talented enough, whatever it may be, the high school recruiting -- particularly position players -- has not been good enough. It's actually been quite bad and the numbers back that up.
If you go back to 2018, I'd argue only four high school position players have been what you'd hope for: Austin Schultz, John Rhodes, Chase Estep, and I'd probably add Devin Burkes to this list just because I think he's going to be good. There have been other "contributors" depending on how you want to frame that (Cam Hill comes to mind) but that's just a crazy miss rate for an SEC team. It's not meant to be harsh, but when you look at the lineup for the majority of the year, Estep was the only kid who signed with Kentucky out of high school.
That's where some nuance comes in, at least for me. I think Will Coggin has done a pretty good job, particularly with classes 2023-25. The 2024 and 25 classes have some true high-end guys already committed. But we're talking about guys who are still years away from being here.
