FSU baseball addressing pitching needs in transfer portal during postseason run

FSU baseball will play in the Super Regionals on Friday for the first time since the 2019 season. The Noles will take on the UConn Huskies, hoping to ride its starting pitching and explosive offense for another trip to the College World Series. FSU has been one of the most complete teams nationally in 2024 despite several injuries to the pitching staff. If FSU fans could point to one weakness, it would be the lack of quality arms overall. Link Jarrett and the staff did a nice job using the transfer portal coming off of the worst season in FSU baseball in most of our lifetimes. However, failing to make the ACC Baseball Championships and the Field of 64, the latter for the first time since 1977, limited what FSU could get from the portal. That doesn't look like it'll be a problem as players enter the transfer portal this summer. FSU added two Jacksonville University pitchers from the portal over the past couple of days. Evan Chrest and Peyton Prescott committed to the Noles.

Over the past two seasons, Chrest started 30 games (10-6), pitching 159.1 innings. He had 172 strikeouts, 61 walks, and allowed 79 earned runs for a 4.46 ERA and a .281 batting average against. Chrest throws low 90s with a slurve and nasty change-up. He was the ASUN Freshman of the Year in 2023 and Freshman All-American. He regressed somewhat in 2024 but has a lot of tools to work with.

Peyton Prescott appeared in 16 games with six starts (5-6) as a freshman in 2024. He pitched 55.1 innings had 46 strikeouts, 22 walks, and allowed 37 earned runs (6.02 ERA). Opposing batters hit .277 against him. Prescott throws a four-pitch mix, low to mid 90's fastball, slider, knuckle-curve, and change-up.

Both guys have good stuff and don't walk a ton of batters overall, which is a plus. A year with Coach Posey should see big improvements, similar to what we saw from players like Brennen Oxford, Joe Charles, and Jamie Arnold. FSU should return an outstanding starting rotation in 2025, and adding quality arms like this will give Link Jarrett plenty of options.