By R.L. Bynum
ACC champion North Carolina has already been active in the baseball transfer portal, with three commitments so far and nine reserve players entering the portal.
During the last offseason, the Tar Heels lost several key players from their College World Series team but reloaded with an influx of talent, earning a No. 1 ranking on their way to a second consecutive Super Regional and a 46–15 record. Coach Scott Forbes is off to a good start this offseason.
Committing to the UNC since the portal opened on June 2 are former Stony Brook first baseman Erik Paulson, the CAA Defensive Player of the Year and All-CAA first-team pick, and two former Georgia State players — catcher Colin Hynek and left fielder Michael Maginnis.
Paulson (top and left photo), a 6–3, 217-pound left-handed hitting rising junior, hit .330 in two seasons at Stony Brook with 13 homers and 68 RBI. Last season, he hit .357 with nine homers and 44 RBI. During UNC’s three-game home sweep of the Seawolves (Feb. 28 through March 2), Paulson went 2 for 10 but was part of four double plays.
Paulson, who was named Freshman All-American by Perfect Game and the school’s first CAA Player of the Year in 2024, committed only two errors last season and none in CAA play. He went 5 for 5 with five runs and five RBI on March 16 against Seton Hall, and finished his season by getting two hits, a three-run home run and four RBI against Monmouth on May 17.
Paulson likely takes over at first base for Hunter Stokely, who is out of eligibility.
Hynek (right photo), a 6–1, 210-pound rising senior known for his elite defense, hit .224 in three seasons at Georgia State with 32 home runs and 90 RBI in 371 at-bats. He hit 18 home runs last season while throwing out 12 baserunners. The right-handed hitter from Rockmart, Ga., who made the dean’s list five times, hit homers in three straight games twice last season.
Carolina will lose sophomore catcher Luke Stevenson, expected to be a first-round pick in the July MLB draft, and the only other two catchers on the roster with eligibility left — junior catcher Macaddin Dye, a Liberty transfer, and freshman Mitch Wilson — are in the transfer portal.
Maginnis (left photo), a 6–1, 205-pound right-handed-hitting rising senior who played third base as a freshman, hit .291 with 24 homers and 107 RBI in three seasons at Georgia State. Last season, he hit a career-high .302 with 10 homers, a career-high 52 RBI and a team-high 18 steals.
Maginnis was second on the team in hits (68) and third in total bases (116). He hit .367 over a stretch from March 12 to 30 and had three games with three hits and four RBI.
While junior outfielders Carter French and Kane Kepley could return, the Tar Heels lose graduate right fielder Tyson Bass.
Four pitchers on last season’s UNC roster entered the portal: redshirt freshman Harrison Lewis (who is transferring to Campbell), freshmen Mason Yokum, Ryan Hench and John Hughes (who wasn’t on the opening-day roster). Position players in the portal in addition to Dye and Wilson are senior outfielder Reece Holbrook and freshmen infielders Tyler Parks and Parker McCoy.
Of the pitchers in the portal, only Hench made an appearance, striking out one in a hitless inning, the ninth inning of the 13–9 home loss March 9 to Stanford. Holbrook (2 for 8 with an RBI and a steal in 18 games) and McCoy (2 for 5 with an RBI in three games) were the only position players in the portal who played.
Holbrook, who has one year of eligibility left, announced Wednesday on X (formerly Twitter) that he is headed to Charleston to play for his dad, head coach Chad Holbook.
The transfer portal closes on July 1.
UNC transfer commitments
| Player | Pos. | Class (next season) | Career statistics | Former school |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Owen Hull | RF | Junior | .367, 8 HRs, 63 RBI, 42 SBs | George Mason |
| Macon Winslow | C | Junior | .267, 13 HRs, 65 RBI | Duke |
| Jake Schaffner | SS | Junior | .353, 37 RBI 34 steals | North Dakota State |
| Colin Hynek | C | Senior | .228, 33 HRs, 91 RBI | Georgia State |
| Michael Maginnis | OF | Senior | .295, 26 HRs, 111 RBI, 40 SBs | Georgia State |
| Erik Paulsen | 1B | Junior | .330, 13 HRs, 68 RBI, 8 SBs | Stony Brook |
Photo via stonybrookathletics.com
tarheeltribune.com 
1 Comment