When former Coach Brian O’Connor departed for Mississippi State last June, Virginia baseball entered a period of uncertainty — the kind the program had not faced in more than two decades. O’Connor, who led the Cavaliers to the 2015 national title, had become synonymous with the baseball program’s identity.
Director of Athletics Carla Williams moved swiftly to hire former Duke Coach Chris Pollard June 10 as the Cavaliers’ new head coach. After leading the Blue Devils to their second ACC title in 2025, Pollard wasted little time reshaping Virginia’s program — and its roster — bringing key Duke players and recruits with him.
The headliner? Superstar junior outfielder A.J. Gracia — a left-handed power bat and three-time Preseason All-American who projects to start in center field and anchor the Cavaliers’ batting order this season.
Gracia came over from Duke alongside junior utilityman Kyle Johnson, sophomore pitchers Max Stammel and Henry Zatkowski and junior infielders Noah Murray and Sam Harris. Virginia also added a number of flipped Blue Devil recruits that followed Pollard.
Coming out of Ranney High School in 2023, Gracia was the top-ranked outfielder in New Jersey with his sights set on making an immediate impact at Duke. Gracia accomplished that — and then some — starting in every game his freshman season, batting .305 and setting Duke freshman records for most home runs and runs batted in.
For Pollard, Gracia’s loudest trait is not exit velocity or bat speed — it’s the poise. He is as advanced between the ears as he is between the lines.
“From a mentality standpoint, he’s the most consistent human being that I’ve ever been around,” Pollard said. “At 51 years old, I would love to be as emotionally regulated as he is.”
Perhaps the greatest testament to Gracia’s maturity is his midseason turnaround in 2025. Exactly halfway through the season, Gracia found himself batting an uncharacteristic .188 amidst a crucial series against rival North Carolina. Rather than doubting himself or beginning to press at the plate, Gracia stayed calm and comfortable, with complete faith in himself and his teammates to turn it around.
“[Pollard] preaches being the same guy every day,” Gracia said. “That’s something I’ve taken to heart … and something that really helped me get through that [struggle].”
To say he turned it around would be an understatement, Gracia batted approximately .400 for the rest of the season, raising his batting average over 100 points to finish the year slashing .293 with 15 home runs and 54 runs batted in. Gracia also set the single-season program record for walks — another example of his patient approach.
“I’m a pretty process-oriented person, one thing I have taken from Coach Pollard has been to be the same guy every day,” Gracia said. “Pouring [myself] into [my] teammates … when you focus your energy on other people, you kind of get out of your own head — that helped me get through the struggle last year.”
For Gracia, the stakes this spring extend beyond Charlottesville. His mix of left-handed power and patience — the same approach that helped him nearly lead the country in walks at Duke — has put him firmly on professional radars.
Draft evaluators have taken notice of an advanced approach built on contact and disciplined swing decisions, as Gracia is currently the 16th-ranked prospect for the 2026 draft. Scouts are optimistic about his ability to stick in center field given his tremendous instincts and routes, making it easy to see why his name keeps rising in draft conversations.
This rise did, however, come with a brief interruption. Gracia battled an undisclosed injury during the fall, temporarily slowing his first months in Charlottesville. He returned to full activity in January and started in the No. 2 spot in the order in Virginia’s first three games of the season.
Now, Gracia teams up with junior infielder Eric Becker — who returns to Virginia as a premier Golden Spikes Award candidate alongside Gracia — to form one of the country’s most dangerous one-two position player duos, batting first and second in the order.
The two played against each other in high school but really connected this summer, as both were selected to compete for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team against Japan in the Collegiate All-Star Series. Team USA ultimately fell short, losing all five games to Japan and failing to break out offensively against a disciplined Japanese team with elite pitching.
“I’ve been playing against Becker for I don’t even know how long,” Gracia said. “It’s funny, a couple months ago we were trying to kill these guys and now we’re all teammates … a pretty easy transition overall.”
Virginia’s allure to top transfer portal players and high school prospects is obvious — an elite program, a world-class institution and the resources to win at the highest level. But Gracia and others entered the transfer portal with a “do not contact” tag for a reason — they weren’t shopping. They were following their coach.
Pollard is the winningest coach in Duke history. Reaching the NCAA Tournament seven times in his 11 seasons with the Blue Devils, he’s built a reputation as a leader who can manage players and win games at an elite level. And the respect he commands from his players is not subtle — it is overwhelming.
In Duke’s regional-clinching win over Oklahoma State in the Athens Regional last season, Gracia launched an electric solo home run to cut the Cowboys’ lead to one. In celebration, he emerged from the dugout with a prop construction helmet — a tradition for the Blue Devils — before he was ejected from the game and suspended for the first game of Duke’s Super Regional matchup in violation of NCAA rules.
Without hesitation, Pollard backed his guy. He criticized the way the rule was applied and emphasized his disappointment not only for Gracia and the team, but for college baseball — that Gracia would miss one of the biggest games of his life.
In his first at-bat returning from suspension, Gracia clubbed a solo home run to right-center to put the Blue Devils ahead. No matter the stakes or setting, the same guy. No matter what.
By staying true to his players and team, Pollard made Gracia’s decision easy — even with plenty of schools pursuing him the moment his name hit the portal.
“I had the ‘[do] no contact’ but it didn’t really matter much,” Gracia said. “He’s a super easy guy to play for — aside from being one of the best coaches in the country, he's just a really good person and that’s someone I’d run through a wall [for] any day of the week.”
Gracia and Pollard came as close as you can get to Omaha last season, their run ending on the wrong side of a one-run game. Now they are together again, in a new place, with the same goal.
If there is one thing Pollard insists about Gracia, it is that he does not live inside the moment, but rather the process. Gracia talks about routine, about being the same guy and about trusting the work even when the results do not show up right away. That mindset in a 21-year-old is rare, and the kind that Virginia is betting on when the pressure rises again.
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