JUCO All-American outfielder Brandon Rogers commits to Arizona baseball

The junior college pipeline has been a productive one for Arizona under Chip Hale, so why not keep tapping it?

The Wildcats have landed a commitment from outfielder Brandon Rogers, who played this past season at Iowa Western Community College, where he was an NJCAA All-American honorable mention.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound right-handed hitting Rogers batted .383 with 13 home runs, 59 RBI and 17 stolen bases in 47 games as a freshman for the Reivers, who went 38-14 and reached the NJCAA playoffs. That included a game in which he was 7 for 9 with two homers (including a grand slam) and eight RBI.

Rogers had originally signed to play at Oklahoma but ended up going the JUCO route to start college.

From Chicago, he is the latest Midwest player the Wildcats have added under Hale and recruiting coordinator Trip Couch. He’s also the latest JUCO transfer expected to make an instant impact, following the exploits this past season of first baseman Kiko Romero (who set the single-season school record with 89 RBI), outfielder Emilio Corona and starting pitchers Aiden May and Bradon Zastrow.

Arizona will likely be replacing two starting outfielders from the 2023 team that reached the NCAA Tournament, as Chase Davis could be a first-round pick in next week’s MLB Draft and Mac Bingham is also expected to get drafted.