Mississippi State baseball’s All-Southeastern Conference freshman outfielder Dakota Jordan’s stay in the transfer portal lasted less than 24 hours. Ultimately, he decided to return to Starkville, according to a report from 247sports..
News surfaced late Tuesday evening that Jordan, from Canton, had entered his name in the portal, putting to halt the program’s good news of hiring Justin Parker from South Carolina as its new pitching coach on Monday .
In his first season at MSU, Jordan batted .307 with 47 hits, 10 homers and 40 RBIs in 44 games. He was named to Perfect Game’s Freshman All-American Second Team following the season.
Before deciding to return, Jordan became the seventh player, and second everyday starter from MSU, to enter the portal, joining Lane Forsythe, Bryce Hubbard, Ryan Williams, Graham Yntema, Von Seibert and Slate Alford, who was MSU’s starting third baseman and committed to Georgia earlier this week.
MSU, who missed the SEC Tournament for the second consecutive year, would have likely had to replace its entire starting outfield from last season with center fielder Colton Ledbetter expected to be a high MLB Draft Pick and right fielder Kellum Clark also expected to continue his pro career after playing three seasons for the Bulldogs.
If Jordan had remained in the portal, the Bulldogs had some viable bench pieces that could have stepped into some of those roles in Bryce Chance (.330/ 33 hits/ two homers/ 22 RBIs in 36 games) and Connor Hujsak (.238/ 10 hits/ two homers/ nine RBIs in 25 games) , who each saw limited playing time last season, or head coach Chris Lemonis could have entertained the portal to bring in bats.
So far MSU has grabbed one player out of the portal in Division II pitcher Nate Lamb out of Young Harris College.
Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.
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