Ole Miss' Hunter Elliott and Josh Mallitz continue working back from season-ending injuries

The summer brings plenty of questions for the Ole Miss baseball program with the majority of him hovering over the future outlook of its pitching staff.

A year removed from winning its first national championship in program history Ole Miss was on the outside looking in this June while the Southeastern Conference won its fourth straight Men’s College World Series championship.

Part of the down year was the loss of Josh Mallitz and Hunter Elliott to injury. The biggest loss of the two was Elliott as Ole Miss was without its Friday night ace one week into the season when he suffered a UCL sprain.

Elliott would return in late April for a short outing against LSU but then shut the season down for good and opted to have Tommy John Surgery. The procedure was done in early May and the clock started on his rehab and potential return to action.

A typical Tommy John procedure requires a 12-month recovery period before a player is able to return to game speed. The hybrid version of the surgery, which is repairing and reconstructing, are becoming more common and can have a player back as early as eight to 10 months.

On Monday Ole Miss baseball assistant coach Carl Lafferty joined the Rebel Yell Hotline and provided updates on both Elliott and Mallitz’ recovery.

“I think Hunter’s doing great with his rehab. The tough thing was the actual timing of the surgery that he had, which was later in the season,” Lafferty said. “If I’m being completely honest, I don’t know the exact status. …I think it’s going well, but again, the status for next year. That’s not something I would even try to comment on because I don’t want to speak out of turn and I don’t want to say something that’s not true.”

Elliott is eligible for the 2024 MLB First Year Player Draft as he enters his third year at Ole Miss.

Plenty of decisions are needing to be made regarding if Elliott will ever don an Ole Miss jersey and take the mound at Oxford-University Stadium again. Before all of that he must first get through his rehab and recovery plan which is only a couple months in.

Mallitz sustained an injury last fall and was lost for the entire 2022 season which caused Ole Miss to be without its presumed closer. The bullpen was out of whack all year and caused the back end of the pitching staff to never truly be settled.

The prognosis is further along for Mallitz after having the surgery back in November. But he is one that Lafferty and the rest of the Ole Miss staff are keeping an eye on in this year’s MLB Draft in a couple week.

“He’s been progressing really well,” Lafferty said of Mallitz. “He’s in great shape. Throwing protocol has gone without hiccups. He had surgery in the fall so you’re talking about a kid, by the time he got to the start of our season would be at 15-16 months. Fully expect him to be healthy at the beginning of next spring and ready to pitch.”

The MLB Draft, which takes place July 9-11 in Seattle, is now in a part of the summer that affects coaching staffs and its approach to recruiting and roster management.

Prior to being moved back to coincide with the MLB All-Star week the draft was held in early June and usually fell on the same weekend as the first weekend of the NCAA Baseball Tournament. Now, programs are out recruiting both high school and the transfer portal but know their strategy could all be for naught midway through the summer.

“I think that’s the challenge for any college baseball team,” Lafferty said. “I don’t think there’s any college program out there that enjoys the draft being in the middle of July. A lot of us would prefer it to be back in the beginning of June where we had a good idea of what we were looking for, I guess, the rest of the summer and how to best put together our roster. You can get to July 9 and all of a sudden things get blown up and you’re looking for players to bring in next year.”