Texas A&M lands commitment from OF/RHP Braden Montgomery

Texas A&M head coach Jim Schlossnagle has gone into the NCAA transfer portal and made another splash. Former Stanford star Braden Montgomery has committed to play for the Aggies. He announced the news via Instagram on Wednesday afternoon.

Montgomery is primarily an outfielder but has the ability to step on the mound too as a right-handed pitcher.

The 2023 season was a good one for Montgomery at the plate, having a .336 batting average. He launched 17 home runs and knocked in 61 RBIs. Texas A&M will be happy to see the OPS sitting above 1.000 as well, coming in at 1.072.

Montgomery got to pitch just 14 innings last year. He gave up a concerning 19 earned runs, with a good chunk (six) of those coming during a nonconference showdown against Sacramento State. Still, Montgomery struck out 19 in 10 appearances.

Texas A&M got a good look at Montgomery this season during the Stanford Regional. As a pitcher, he had an outing that lasted 2.1 innings, giving up one run on a hit and a walk, but struck out three Aggie batters. The following day, Montgomery hit a home run and truly showed the versatility he offers moving forward in College Station.

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.