The MLB Draft is close enough now that nothing feels hypothetical anymore.<\/p>\n
Next Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia will decide exactly how different Ole Miss looks on the mound in 2027, and the truth is the picture hasn\u2019t changed much over the last couple of weeks.<\/p>\n
Taylor Rabe and Cade Townsend are still projected to go high. High enough that you can safely assume they won\u2019t be back in Oxford next season.<\/p>\n
That alone reshapes the weekend rotation.<\/p>\n
Losing two arms who are both viewed as Top\u201140 prospects in the upcoming draft is the kind of hit you don\u2019t simply patch over with one transfer or a couple of freshmen.<\/p>\n
Rabe\u2019s rise up draft boards has been one of the bigger storylines of the summer. Baseball America bumped him to No. 39 last month<\/a>. Townsend has stayed steady in the Top\u201130 range, even landing at No. 24 on Perfect Game\u2019s list.<\/p>\n MLB.com\u2019s latest mock still has Townsend going first<\/a>, slotted to Colorado at No. 37 with a nearly $2.7 million value.<\/p>\n Either way, both are likely gone. That\u2019s been the expectation for the last month or two, and nothing has happened to change it.<\/p>\n Wil Libbert is also a draft candidate, but his situation doesn\u2019t swing the roster the same way. He\u2019s a good arm with real value, but the rotation questions start and end with Rabe, Townsend and the biggest unknown of all.<\/p>\n Hunter Elliott.<\/p>\n Elliott is the biggest question mark. If he\u2019s drafted high enough, he\u2019s gone. If he isn\u2019t, Ole Miss suddenly has the last remaining player with a national championship ring back for another season.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to overstate how much Elliott\u2019s decision changes the math.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s why the next week feels so important. Ole Miss can\u2019t control what happens in Philadelphia, but it has done everything possible to prepare for the fallout.<\/p>\n The transfer portal additions tell the story. Kendall Hoffman from Houston. Eli Pillsbury from Jacksonville State. Mavrick Rizy from LSU. Charlie Foster from Mississippi State. Charlie Wilcox from Georgia Tech.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a full rotation\u2019s worth of arms, and every one of them has the potential to pitch meaningful innings right away. Some project as weekend starters. Some look like high\u2011leverage bullpen pieces.<\/p>\n All of them give Ole Miss options it didn\u2019t have a month ago.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the point. You don\u2019t replace Rabe and Townsend with one guy. You replace them with depth, competition and enough upside that at least two of those arms can grow into weekend roles.<\/p>\n The draft will also take its swing at the high school class. Cole Prosek and Taj Marchand are still expected to go early, maybe even earlier than Townsend. Ole Miss has been bracing for that.<\/p>\n So here we are. One week out. The picture is clear enough to see the outlines but blurry enough that the final version could still surprise everyone.<\/p>\n Rabe and Townsend are gone. Libbert is a maybe. Elliott is the hinge point.<\/p>\n And Ole Miss has spent the last month building a safety net strong enough to handle whatever the draft throws at it.<\/p>\n Next weekend will tell the rest of the story.<\/p>\n Ole Miss Baseball 2026 Transfer Portal Tracker Noah Allen, RHP (Alabama) Incoming Transfers<\/p>\n Brady Dallimore, C (TCU)<\/a>
\nOutgoing Transfers<\/p>\n
\nBlake Ilitch, RHP
\nBrett Moseley, OF<\/a>
\nBrayden Randle, UTL
\nTate Sirmans, OF<\/p>\n
\nBlake Fields, OF\/INF (Houston)
\nCharlie Foster, LHP (Mississippi State)<\/a>
\nJason Fultz, 3B (Clemson)
\nTrey Hawsey, 1B (Louisiana Tech)
\nKendall Hoffman, RHP (Houston)<\/a>
\nEli Pillsbury, LHP (Jacksonville State)<\/a>
\nMavrick Rizy, RHP (LSU)<\/a>
\nAndrew Rogovic, RHP (Northeastern)<\/a>
\nBrent Stukes, RHP (USC Upstate)
\nCharlie Wilcox, RHP (Georgia Tech)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MLB Draft is close enough now that nothing feels hypothetical anymore. Next Saturday and Sunday in Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743221,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[5,73476,648,29793,2291,4,1586,20731,18636,7962,92339,5981,12798,90121],"class_list":["post-743220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb-draft","tag-baseball","tag-cade-townsend","tag-college-baseball","tag-hunter-elliott","tag-major-league-baseball-draft","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-draft","tag-mlb-mock-draft","tag-mlb-com","tag-ole-miss-baseball","tag-ole-miss-pitching-staff","tag-rebels","tag-sec-baseball","tag-taylor-rabe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116863936966629024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}