Tyler Bell's self belief is leading to a possible starting job

Kentucky Baseball won big when infielder Tyler Bell, who was ranked the No. 59 overall player in the Class of 2024, committed to the Cats last winter.

Things however got hairy for the program when the star incoming freshman was selected by the Tampa Bay Rays with the No. 66 pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, leaving Bell with a tough decision to either attend Kentucky or begin his professional career. Bell decided to turn down the pros and will be a Kentucky Wildcat until at least 2026, when he is eligible to be selected again.

Kentucky Baseball head coach Nick Mingione joined the “Southeastern 16” podcast earlier this week to praise Tyler Bell and discuss his philosophy of mixing high school talent with transfer portal talent.

“You’ve got to have this nice mix of high school guys that you’ve developed and fill in with [Transfer Portal] pieces,” Mingione said. “Eventually you become old and experienced, and that’s a good thing.”

Along with homegrown talent such as James McCoy and Devin Burkes, the Cats hauled in portal pieces Cole Hage, Dylan Koontz, Luke Lawrence, Shaun Montoya, and others this offseason to round out their 2025 lineup.

“We have a guy this year in Tyler Bell. If the season started today, he would start in our infield,” Mingione told host Chris Lee. “He’s a freshman. I’m not opposed to playing freshman too. We’re going to play the best players and this year again, we should have three to four (maybe five) guys that are in our starting lineup that were high school players. Now they’re sophomore, juniors, and in [Devin Burkes’] case a fifth year.”

With just two weeks until the season officially begins, it looks as if Bell will have a starting spot in Kentucky’s infield. Although nothing is official, the infield could consist of Bell at shortstop, Illinois State transfer Luke Lawrence at second base, Campbell transfer Dylan Koontz at first base, and either Patrick Herrera, Kyuss Gargett, or Ethan Hindle at third base.

“Well he made it really clear in the recruiting process that Kentucky was his dream school,” Mingione said. “This is where he wanted to play. As the Draft and everything started and going on, he was a second rounder. He is just like all the other great players that I’ve ever coached, where he has this tremendous self belief. He believes in himself and it’s not coming from the outside into him, it comes from the inside out. This guy has tremendous belief in himself.”

All of BBN is hoping that Bell’s belief in himself turns into a monster freshman season. Kentucky opens its 2025 season on the road at Lipscomb on February 14.