All-Big East OF transferring to Arkansas
The season isn’t even over, but Arkansas has already landed its first portal addition for the 2023 season.
Former Creighton outfielder Jared Wegner will play his final season of college baseball with the Razorbacks as a graduate transfer, he announced Tuesday afternoon via Twitter.
Listed at 6-foot-1, 215 pounds, the Kearney, Neb., native was a first-team All-Big East selection in his fourth season with the Bluejays this year.
The honor came after an impressive 2022 campaign in which he led Creighton in home runs (11), RBIs (53) and stolen bases (11), and finished second in batting average (.343) while being one of only three players to start all 49 games.
Wegner also posted an impressive 1.094 OPS. That includes a .459 on-base percentage aided by 43 free passes (30 walks, 13 HBP), which is one more than his 42 strikeouts, and a team-high .635 slugging percentage aided by 14 doubles and three triples on top of his 11 long balls.
It was a breakout season for a guy who had been hampered by injuries the previous two seasons after showing promise as a true freshman back in 2019.
Last year, Wegner suffered a season-ending injury after just 17 games and, the year before that, he went down with a broken hand five games into the season before the pandemic. As a freshman, he hit .264/.369/.336 with 20 RBIs in 43 games, including 38 starts.
During his Creighton career, he appeared in 114 games and posted a .303/.408/.483 slash line.
Primarily a corner outfielder, Wegner started a majority of his games in left field (62) or right field (22). However, he made five starts in center this season and also started 20 games as a designated hitter.
That is a position of need for Arkansas because Braydon Webb and Chris Lanzilli — two of its three primary starting outfielders — are super seniors and out of eligibility after this season. Zack Gregory, the third starter, is a redshirt junior.
The Razorbacks have had success with transfers in recent years. Lanzilli (Wake Forest) and Michael Turner (Kent State) are their only players hitting over .300 this season and Lael Lockhart (Houston) was part of the starting rotation last year. In 2019, Trevor Ezell (Southeast Missouri State) was a second-team All-SEC performer.