Three more Michigan baseball players enter transfer portal as coaching search continues
The hits keep coming for Michigan Wolverines baseball. The Maize and Blue lost three more players to the NCAA transfer portal, bringing the total number of athletes to enter the database up to eight since head coach Erik Bakich departed for Clemson last week.
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Wednesday evening, TheWolverine.com learned that sophomore right-handed pitcher Ahmad Harajli, junior outfielder Jake Marti and senior left-handed pitcher Jack White have entered the portal. This comes one day after we reported that five others — senior infielder Riley Bertram, freshman left-handed pitcher Jaylen Jones, sophomore infielder Brandon Lawrence, junior catcher Jimmy Obertop and senior right-handed pitcher Willie Weiss — have done so since Bakich’s official departure (June 16).
Marti appeared in 31 games with 19 starts last season, posting a .189 batting average with two doubles, one home fun and 12 RBI. He started 20 of his 24 games played in 2021, when he missed 22 contests due to injury. He played two seasons at Heartland Community College prior to joining the Michigan squad.
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Ahmad pitched in 17 games last season, totaling 11 innings. His 13.09 ERA was less than stellar. The Dearborn, Mich., native did not appear in a game in 2021.
White’s outings came even fewer and far between. He saw action in just four contests with three starts, allowing 11 earned runs in 3.2 innings of work (27.00 ERA).
Michigan’s coaching search is ongoing, with several candidates having already pulled out of the race. Bakich led Michigan to five NCAA Tournaments and one appearance in the College World Series Finals during his 10 seasons. Athletic director Warde Manuel is tasked with finding a replacement for one of his top coaches on campus. If he doesn’t move quicker, the hits could keep on coming.
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Bertram has already committed to Clemson, per his Twitter page.
“Thank you to the University of Michigan and @umichbaseball for four of the greatest years of my life,” Bertram wrote on Twitter. “With that being said, I have committed to Clemson University for my final year of eligibility.”
Bertram batted .298, scored 47 runs, posted 70 hits, including a team-high 19 doubles and two home runs, and produced 40 RBI. He was named to the Big Ten All-Tournament team at shortstop. Obertop was second on the Michigan team with 15 home runs, while batting .278, scoring 46 runs and notching 65 hits. He was tabbed to the Big Ten All-Tournament team at catcher.
Weiss was one of Michigan’s top relievers, appearing in 22 games last season. He earned a 5.29 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP, while pitching 34 innings with 27 hits and 20 earned runs allowed. He was thrown out of Michigan’s Big Ten Tournament game against Iowa for having a foreign substance on his glove, and that wound up being his last game of the season after serving a four-game suspension.
The other two departures don’t sting as much based on what they’ve produced to this point, but both Lawrence and Jones are young players with upside. Lawrence appeared in 17 games with four starts, notching two hits and driving in four runs in 12 at-bats. Jones pitched in just five games in 2022, allowing 11 earned runs in 2.2 innings of work.
