What’s Next for Miami Hurricanes Baseball? Coach J.D. Arteaga Breaks Down 2026 Returners, Needs

Miami Hurricanes baseball coach J.D. Arteaga is quick to point to 2025 as one of his favorite years coaching. And he’s been at it a while, with 21 years as a Miami assistant and now the last two as head coach.

On the surface, perhaps his endearment for this season’s team is a bit of a surprise since UM didn’t reach its Omaha goal.

But dig deeper and you saw a group of guys that were having fun, enjoying each other and playing really high-level ball at different points of the season after a slow 16-16 start.

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It ended with an oh-so-close run to the College World Series, a one-run loss in Game 3 of Super Regionals at Louisville.

But that wasn’t really the end.

In many ways it was the beginning.

Because now Arteaga has more of a base of talent on which to build compared to the team heading into 2025 that was pretty much all-new.

He’s got back one of the nation’s top hitters, Daniel Cuvet (61 starts, .372, 18 HRs, 84 RBI), plus Derek Williams (senior gets extra year as former JUCO player, started 42 games and hit .317 with 9 HRs), Max Galvin (59 starts, .313, 8 HRs), Fabio Peralta (46 starts, .238, 2 HRs) and Michael Torres (42, starts, .231, 1 HR). SS Jake Ogden (62 starts, .336, 9 HRs) is viewed by Arteaga as “50/50” to return depending on what happens with the Major League Baseball Draft July 13-14.

“Nobody has any idea until draft day,” Arteaga told CaneSport.

On the mound Miami returns a pair of freshmen who started games in AJ Ciscar (10 starts, 4.46 ERA, 6-2 record) and Tate DeRias (7 starts, 5.77 ERA, 2-3 record), and also back are relievers Jake Dorn (11 appearances, 1.98 ERA) and Rob Evans (17 appearances, 4.70 ERA off injury, threw well at the end of the season). Nick Robert will return off Tommy John surgery.

It’s expected Brian Walters (2-3, 4.94 ERA, 11 saves) will be drafted and won’t return, and the same goes for ace Griffin Hugus (6-7, 4.16 ERA).

“Those are the two I think definitely will get drafted (and leave),” Arteaga said.

Which leaves pitcher as a big focus for additions this off-season.

“We are going to have to rebuild the pitching staff,” Arteaga said. “We have Ciscar coming back and DeRias. After that you’re losing Walters, losing [Carson] Fischer (30 appearances, 5-1, 5.40 ERA), losing Will Smith (25 appearances, 3-1, 4.30 ERA), [Reese] Lumpkin (12 starts, 4-2, 5.31 ERA), [Alex] Giroux (22 appearances, 3 starts, 5-2, 6.50 ERA). Losing Hugus on top of that. So we lose a lot of innings, really have to rebuild that staff. There’s a lot of holes in our pitching staff.”

So far the team’s added four transfers: UNLV RHP/SP Michael Taylor (16 appearances, 2-1, 3.86 ERA), FIU 1B Brylan West (First-Team All-Conference USA, 56 starts, .338, 12 HR), USC Upstate IF Vance Sheahan (61 starts, All-Big South First Team, .328, 12 HRs) and Miami-Dade Community College 3B/OF Cian Copeland (52 games, .361, 15 HRs).

There also are several top-ranked high school prospects among the 2025 class – a couple of area guys with Columbus SS Mario Magana and American Heritage 3B Dylan Dubovik plus Canadian 3B Timothy Piasentin, Riverside (Calif.) OF Mason Greenhouse, Bradenton (Fla.) SS Eddie Zaun, Brooklyn (NY) RHP Erick Peralta (has hit 96 mph), Port Chester (NY) LHP Sebastian Santos-Olson and Winter Garden (Fla.) LHP Lonzo Drummond.

Depending on where guys go in the draft will determine who winds up on campus in the fall. Of those listed, Miami’s most concerned about losing Magana, Peralta and Piasentin to MLB.

And yes, as you can see above Arteaga’s incoming class has players from around the nation including Florida, California, Texas, Virginia, North Carolina and New York. Oh, and Canada.

“We’re a national brand, it’s something we’re taking advantage of,” Arteaga said. “We still want to get the best players out of Miami, but I don’t think we have to be 75 percent of our roster from Miami either. If there’s somebody better in Canada, we’re going to go to Canada.”

* Note that players transferring out are Renzo Gonzalez (62 starts, .257, 11 HRs), Todd Hudson (19 starts, .259, 1 HR), Jake Kulikowski (4 starts, .276) and RP Jackson Cleveland (19 appearances, 4.44 ERA).

Stay tuned tomorrow as Arteaga discusses the scholarship situation, how NIL and the House settlement affect Miami baseball and more.