Kentucky lands Elon catcher Alex Duffey

Kentucky landed a commitment from one of its top targets on Saturday when Elon’s Alex Duffey announced that he’d be attending Kentucky. Needing an impact catcher for next year, the Wildcats pushed their chips in on Duffey and landed his commitment during a two-day visit earlier in the week.

Duffey slashed .349/.463/.479 as a redshirt junior in 2025 and earned All-CAA Second Team honors.

“It came down to two big things for me,” Duffey told Bat Cats Central on Friday. “Just that championship mindset of winning. That was a big thing to me. I wanted a winning program, a winning culture where that’s what they’re striving for every day. The second thing for me is I wanted to challenge myself and I wanted to compete against the best of the best. There’s no better place to do that than the SEC.”

Duffey, who has one year of eligibility remaining, steadily got better each year at Elon. He hit .175/.340/.225 in 40 at-bats as a freshman with two RBI but 10 walks drawn. Knowing that his playing time could be limited as a sophomore because of more experienced players above him on the depth chart, Duffey asked head coach Mike Kennedy if he could redshirt.

“I went into Coach Kennedy’s office and I just outright asked him ‘listen coach, I want a year to develop, get stronger, grow up and really use that year to take strides in my game and my career, hopefully prolonging it would help me out.’ I owe Coach Kennedy everything for that,” Duffey said. “He let me do that on my own, and it was probably one of the best things for my career.”

“(Kennedy) was great for me. He helped me grow up as a man and as a player. I owe those guys a lot at Elon.”