photo credit: Ball State Athletics
Don’t let the level of competition fool you: Dylan Grego is a big-time transfer portal addition for Arkansas baseball.
Fresh off a breakout junior season at Ball State for which he earned third-team All-America accolades, the standout shortstop is set to finish his career with the Razorbacks.
That is, of course, if he makes it to Fayetteville. While he’s eligible for this year’s MLB Draft, Grego isn’t included on any of the major prospect lists — but it sounds like he’s still on the radar of pro scouts.
“He very well might go pretty good in the draft,” Ball State baseball coach Rich Maloney told Best of Arkansas Sports. “I don’t know how good, but I would think he’s going in the draft based on how he played. He’s not going to be a high pick, but he’s a rising star.”
Having recruited Grego and coached him the last three years, Maloney may not be the most impartial evaluator of Arkansas’ new shortstop, but it’s also hard to ignore his resume.
A 30-year veteran, he is one of the best mid-major coaches in the country. Maloney is in his second stint with the Cardinals, with 20 years at Ball State sandwiched around a 10-year stint at Michigan. Over the last three decades, he’s won 1,024 games, making him the ninth-winningest active head coach at the Division I level.
He’s also produced 69 MLB Draft picks and coached six first-rounders, highlighted by 2002 No. 1 overall pick Bryan Bullington. Of those, 13 have reached the big leagues.
Needless to say, Maloney knows talent when he sees it and he likened Grego to current Detroit Tigers star Zach McKinstry, who played collegiately at MAC foe Central Michigan.
“I think he has a real chance to be a big leaguer,” Maloney said. “I think he’s got a real shot.”
It hasn’t always been that way, though. Grego has put in a lot of work to put himself in a position to play in the SEC or potentially get drafted.
Dylan Grego’s Development
Few scouts or coaches paid much attention to Dylan Grego when he starred at Staley High in Kansas City, Mo.
Not only was the switch-hitting infielder outside of Perfect Game’s top 500 recruits, but he wasn’t even among the 2,324 total players the service gave some sort of state or position ranking.
Grego did have a Perfect Game profile, though, and it provides a clue for why he was overlooked: He was listed at just 6-foot, 155 pounds. Luckily for him, Rich Maloney has made a living developing diamonds in the rough and offered him a spot at Ball State.
“We just saw a kid that fits right into our mode,” Maloney said. “We thought competitor, hits from both sides, had power from both sides. Even though he was skinny, we knew he’d get stronger.”
When he arrived in Muncie, Ind., Grego still just listed at just 170 pounds during his freshman year. Maloney said he certainly had skills, but just wasn’t strong or consistent enough to earn significant playing time.
Primarily a backup, Grego started five games and appeared in 16 others in 2023. He did okay in limited action, going 10 for 34 (.294) with 3 home runs and 10 RBIs, but was very clearly behind some of his older teammates on the depth chart.
That summer, he was sent to Virginia to play for the Alexandria Aces in the Cal Ripken Collegiate League – a team coached by one of Maloney’s former players, Chris Berset.
Berset was a 20th-round pick out of Michigan who spent seven seasons in the Reds’ organization, even reaching Triple-A, before staying in baseball as a coach and trainer. When he got his hands on Grego, he could tell the shortstop was still “a little raw” and said his main objective that summer was refining his approach.
“When he first got here, he was trying to hit jack after jack, bombs galore,” Berset said. “We kind of had to calm him down, learn how to use the whole field a little bit, understand what it really means to be a power hitter.”
Although improving enough to earn some playing time in 2024, when he split time between second base, third base and shortstop, Grego struggled with his glove and at the plate. He hit just .242 with a .738 OPS in 161 at bats and committed 14 errors, twice as many as anyone else on the team.
Instead of having him play in another collegiate league, Maloney opted to send his promising infielder to a training facility that summer with the primary goal of getting stronger.
And it worked.
“He dedicated himself to gain 20-25 pounds,” Maloney said. “He did it faithfully. He was amazing and came back a whole different player.”
Breakout Year at Ball State
Last season’s numbers don’t lie. Now up to 195 pounds, Dylan Grego hammered 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 58 games.
The everyday shortstop slashed .376/.429/.624 and, despite an aggressive approach, managed to cut down his strikeout rate from 21.0% to 15.9%. He was also 15 of 20 on stolen bases.
It likely helped that Grego is a legitimate switch hitter, with his former coach saying he might be a little better from the left side, but not by much.
His exact splits as a right- and left-handed hitter aren’t available, but his splits against right- and left-handed pitchers are probably pretty close and he hit .360 in 50 at bats against lefties and .380 in 192 at bats against righties, according to NCAA statistics.
Defensively, Grego committed only five errors and posted a .978 fielding percentage at the premium position after struggling to a .914 mark while playing three different spots a year earlier.
Maloney, a former shortstop in the minor leagues who has published a slideshow on proper middle infield technique on the Ball State website, acknowledged he’s capable of playing other positions, but said he believes he can stick at the position.
“It took us a couple years, but man, he played a whale of a shortstop,” Maloney said. “He was not good, he was fantastic.”
All the hard work paid off, as Grego’s postseason honors show:
First-team All-MAC
MAC All-Defensive Team
ABCA first-team All-Region
ABCA third-team All-American
Brooks Wallace Award semifinalist
And that’s just what he did on the field. He was also voted a third-team Academic All-American for his efforts in the classroom, which includes posting a 3.55 GPA while working on his business administration degree.
What Arkansas Baseball is Getting
Despite that production coming at the mid-major level, coaches across the country started blowing up Rich Maloney’s phone when Dylan Grego hit the transfer portal last month.
“A lot of other people were willing to pay him whatever to get him,” Maloney said.
It certainly helped that Maloney has a track record of developing guys who hit the road running for other college programs. Look no further than Adam Tellier, who played alongside Grego in 2023.
Teller hit .316 with a .909 OPS, 9 home runs and 46 RBIs in 59 games as the Cardinals’ starting shortstop before packing his bags for Wake Forest, where he hit .313 with a .935 OPS, 13 home runs and 44 RBIs in 60 games.
Maloney stressed he doesn’t know if Grego will even remain in school. Scouts have told him his former star could go anywhere between the sixth and 12th round of this month’s MLB Draft, but he admitted it’s harder to get a firm projection these days, especially since the draft was shortened from 40 to 20 rounds a few years ago.
“Back in the day, we used to have a better indication (if a player) would get drafted or not,” Maloney said. “But now the shortened draft and the transfer portal and all these other things, I don’t have the same grip I once had on the draft, so I really don’t know.”
Wherever Grego ends up, Maloney believes he will do well. His mere agreement to an interview indicates just how highly he regards his former standout. In the transfer portal era, coaches have a tendency to be bitter when losing a premier player. Most turn down publicly discussing at length those who enter the portal.
Maloney, on the other hand, will be rooting for Grego’s success and told BoAS that he’d be keeping in touch with him moving forward because he’s a “friend for life.”
For Arkansas fans’ sake, those conversations will hopefully be centered around how well he’s filled Wehiwa Aloy’s Golden Spikes in Fayetteville.
Projected Starters for Arkansas Baseball in 2026
The Razorbacks have since landed two more position players out of the transfer portal since Dylan Grego became the first to commit on June 24.
Just this week, former Missouri State outfielder Zack Stewart and former Texas Tech infielder TJ Pompey announced their pledges to Arkansas baseball.
Their additions have made next year’s lineup come more into focus, but the Razorbacks likely aren’t done. That said, here are some possible defensive combinations for next season…
C – Ryder Helfrick
Already a subscriber? Log in here
Keep reading this article for free.
Sign up for a free account to continue reading and get access to the BoAS’ newsletter.
The free account you create gives access to more of BoAS’ stories delivered to your inbox. Unsubscribe any time.
***
Here’s a look at the entire 2026 Arkansas baseball roster as it stands today:
***
***
More coverage of Arkansas baseball from BoAS…