Arizona baseball’s 2020 recruiting class is the Wildcats’ best in a long time and one of the best in the nation, according to Baseball America.
The publication rated the UA’s ’20 class fourth in the country in its latest rankings, released Wednesday.
“Coach Jay Johnson has taken Arizona recruiting to new heights since arriving in Tucson in 2015 and now has landed five straight Top 25 classes, more than the program had totaled in the first 15 years of the rankings,” according to BA. “This class is also the Wildcats’ highest-ranked class ever, bringing in impressive talent across the board.”
Arizona lost only one signee, infielder Nick Yorke, in the abbreviated 2020 MLB draft. The Wildcats were able to hold on to three players ranked among the top 120 in BA’s top 500 prospects for the ’20 draft: outfielder Chase Davis (55), two-way player TJ Nichols (111) and catcher Daniel Susac (118). Infielder Jacob Berry (220) and pitcher Chase Sliseth (305) also ranked in the top 500.
The rankings do not include players transferring from four-year schools. Arizona also has added a handful of transfers, including right-hander Austin Smith of Southwestern University, one of the breakout performers in the Texas Collegiate League this summer.
The top three schools in BA’s rankings are Miami, LSU and Vanderbilt. The highest-ranked Pac-12 school after Arizona is Stanford at No. 7.
"We are honored to receive this ranking from Baseball America and are excited about the group of players we brought in," Johnson said in a news release. "This is a group with high-level ability and character. I believe this class will mesh well with the returning players in the program to help us reach our potential in 2020 and beyond while helping our program function at an extremely high level.
"It is a balanced class in regards to the attributes they bring to the table, and it gives us an opportunity to have a team that can be successful and win in different ways. We have players in this class who have the opportunity to make an immediate impact on our success and others that have tremendous long-term potential."
The Wildcats were 10-5 when the 2020 college baseball season was halted in early March because of the coronavirus pandemic. Officials within the sport are hopeful a full season can be played in 2021. BA placed Arizona 12th in its “Never Too Early” Top 25 for ’21.
