Moore enters portal but could be drafted anyway

photo by: Davis Kuhn/Big 12 Conference

Kansas' Cooper Moore pitches against TCU on Friday, May 23, 2025, in Arlington, Texas.

One of the Kansas baseball team’s top young players entered the transfer portal right before it could close, but he might not make it to another school at all.

Sophomore right-handed pitcher Cooper Moore decided to transfer, as was first reported by Baseball America on Tuesday night. But Moore, 21, is eligible for the 2025 MLB Draft, and KU coach Dan Fitzgerald said on Wednesday that he is likely to get selected in a favorable position, based on conversations with scouts.

“I think Cooper is certainly going to have an active phone on draft day,” Fitzgerald said, “and I don’t anticipate him being around very long before he signs professionally.”

Moore spent two seasons with the Jayhawks after joining KU as one of its few high school recruits over the last several years. Coming out of Bixby High School in Oklahoma, from which he was recruited to Lawrence by KU’s previous coaching staff, Moore was a high-level catcher prospect and once told the Journal-World that becoming a pitcher was “kind of the last thing (he) expected.”

He took to it quite well. As a freshman during the 2024 season, he led the team with 29 appearances, which was tied for the most in the nation among first-year players, and posted a 4.05 ERA with 31 strikeouts to 13 walks.

Moore also handled the transition to KU’s Saturday night starting role, behind classmate Dominic Voegele in the rotation, quite smoothly as a sophomore, going seven or more innings in six starts during conference play. That included an eight-inning, one-run, 10-strikeout performance against BYU on May 9. He finished the year with a second-team all-conference honor, a 3.96 ERA and a whopping 85 strikeouts to 19 walks.

“I think when you can beat people with your fastball, your efficiency goes up exponentially, and Cooper’s fastball is so good,” Fitzgerald said in May. “Teams know it’s coming, but it’s why they pay guys in the big leagues a lot of money to throw sinkers. And he keeps the ball on the ground, which with a really good defense leads to efficient innings.”

Baseball America ranks Moore as its No. 428 prospect for the draft, which begins on July 13 in Cumberland, Georgia. The website 11Point7 placed him at No. 131 earlier in the spring.

On Wednesday, following the news of Moore’s portal entry, Fitzgerald said that he would keep the content of his recent conversations with Moore private and spoke generally about how there are a wide range of reasons why players decide to transfer.

“He certainly contributed a ton on the field,” he added. “I think one of the things I’m really proud of with Cooper is he came in here as an 87-88 (mph) right-handed pitcher and left as a guy that was routinely 94, 96, so in terms of development and our ability to take a young athlete who’s worked at it really hard, what coach (Brandon) Scott and coach (Ryan) Holland (and) our entire crew did to develop him, I’m really proud of, and I know that’s going to serve Cooper well down the road.”

Last year KU had a somewhat comparable situation in which pitcher J’Briell Easley, following a strong pitching performance in the Big 12 tournament against Oklahoma, entered the portal. He ended up going through the draft process and as an undrafted free agent with the Texas Rangers.

As for the returning Jayhawks, KU will retain Voegele entering next season and could bring back this past year’s Sunday starter, Kannon Carr. It has also added a variety of new contenders for the rotation, such as recent transfer additions Carter Fink (East Tennessee State) and Riane Ritter (St. Thomas).