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Notre Dame baseball catcher Carson Tinney enters NCAA transfer portal

IMG_9992by:Tyler Horka•06/02/25•

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Notre Dame catcher Carson Tinney. (Photo courtesy of Notre Dame Athletics)

It’s gone from bad to worse for Notre Dame baseball. Just one week after missing out on the NCAA Tournament on Selection Monday, the Fighting Irish’s best player from the 2025 season is looking for somewhere else to play in 2026.

Rising junior catcher Carson Tinney has entered the NCAA transfer portal.

Tinney was on a tear for the Irish at the end of the season, helping Notre Dame win 16 of its last 20 games. The Irish entered the tournament bubble conversation as a result. That would not have been reality without Tinney, who ended up hitting .348 with 17 home runs and 53 runs batted in. He slugged .753 and recorded an on-base percentage of .498. Every one of those statistics were team-highs.

Tinney is in the portal with a do-not-contact tag, which usually means a student-athlete has a good idea of where he or she wants to go. He’s a native of Castle Pines (Co.) and attended Valor Christian High School.

Despite Tinney’s unreal run as a sophomore, Notre Dame missed the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season. The Fighting Irish last participated in postseason ball in 2022 on their way to the third College World Series appearance in program history. The head coach behind that run, Link Jarrett, is in the Super Regional round of the tournament this week as the man in charge of his alma mater, Florida State.

In the third year of the Shawn Stiffler era in South Bend, Notre Dame began conference play with a 4-14 record. Then the Irish went on their April and May run, but it was still too little, too late. They finished the year with a 32-21 overall record, a 14-16 mark in conference play and a one-and-done showing at the ACC Tournament. Boston College, a non-NCAA Tournament team by a long shot, beat Stiffler’s team for the third time this year at the conference tourney.

Without Tinney, it’ll be back to the drawing board for Stiffler — which is what it’s been for as long as he’s been at the helm. Notre Dame is 89-70 overall and 38-52 in the ACC under his guidance. Pinning optimism for 2026 on the return of Tinney and a strong finish to the 2025 season would have been ideal, but losing Tinney to the portal puts a major damper on that.

It feels like the Stiffler tenure is getting late early. Tinney’s departure is just another reminder of that.

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