2023 TCU Baseball Preview: Outfielders

The TCU baseball team will have most of its starting outfield back from the 2022 season. Right fielder Luke Boyers and center fielder Elijah Nunez are both returning for their junior seasons and should each factor largely in the Horned Frog batting order. A former All-Big 12 Freshman Team honoree, Nunez recorded a .287/.435/.368 slash line during the 2022 campaign, stealing 31 bases and notching 31 RBIs for the season. Boyers saw his power numbers grow from his freshman season, where he held a .307 average with one home run. Boyers belted six home runs and recorded 37 RBIs during the 2022 season, finishing with a .250/.345/397 slash line. Boyers added 11 doubles and the first two triples of his career.

TCU will be without outfielder Porter Brown, who transferred to Texas after four years with the Horned Frogs. Brown started 82 games during his time with TCU, holding a .286/.395/.428 slash line with 95 hits, 63 RBIs and 25 stolen bases. The Horned Frogs found Brown’s replacement in the transfer portal, bringing in West Virginia transfer and 2022 All-Big 12 First Team honoree Austin Davis. One of the best hitters in the Big 12 Conference over the last three seasons, Davis slashed .330/.402/.442 with 29 stolen bases last season. Davis is one of two positions prospects (Baylor’s Tre Richardson) TCU secured through the transfer portal over the offseason that figure to be regular starters for the 2023 campaign.

Nunez and Davis could each find roles at the top of the batting order, where their base stealing abilities and high on-base numbers could set the table for the heart of the TCU lineup, which will likely feature Preseason All-American third baseman Brayden Taylor and first baseman David Bishop. Boyers could also find a role near the middle of the Horned Frog order if his power numbers continue to grow this spring. Defensively, Davis and Nunez’s combined speed should bode well for tracking down fly balls in the outfield. Meanwhile, Boyers has committed only one error on 167 putouts and four assists during his career, posting a .994 fielding percentage during that two-year time period.

Sophomore Logan Maxwell started in 21 games before conceding the role to Brown over the final stretch of games during the 2022 season. Maxwell started his freshman campaign strong, but cooled off significantly down the stretch, finishing with a .194/.372/.250 line.