John Paul Head is coming back. So is almost everyone else.

UAB baseball announced Friday that 17 players from its 2026 roster will return next season. In a sport where the transfer portal empties rosters every spring, the Blazers lost one player to it. One.

Brady Waugh, a junior infielder who hit .322 with 49 RBI, entered the portal and transferred to Southern Miss. Seventeen players announced they will return.

The headliner is John Paul Head.

The best player nobody poached

Head hit .329 with 22 home runs, 56 RBI and a .710 slugging percentage as a sophomore. He led the American Athletic Conference in OPS (1.167) and home runs. He was second in total bases (147) and RBI, fifth in walks (43). He drew four of the team’s six intentional walks. He started 55 of 58 games.

His 22 home runs rank second in program history — one shy of Shayne Carnes’ school record of 23, set in 1998. He became the first player in program history to hit 20 home runs and steal 10 bases in the same season. He was the fourth player in American Conference history to reach 20 home runs in a year.

The ABCA named him to the Southeast All-Region First Team — the first ABCA First Team selection at any level in program history. Jay Cole (1993) and Shayne Carnes (1998) both earned Third Team All-American honors. Ryan Keedy made the All-South Region Second Team in 2008. Nobody had ever been named to a first team until Head.

Head is a junior from Vestavia Hills with two years of eligibility remaining. He had the kind of season that draws SEC and ACC attention. He stayed. That decision alone changes what 2027 looks like for UAB baseball.

What the Blazers are bringing back

The returning position players account for 49 of the team’s school-record 85 home runs and 170 of 393 RBI. The returning pitchers logged 299.2 of the team’s 495.1 innings and 20 of 32 wins.

Position players returning:

Alex Dupuy hit .272 with 10 home runs and 41 RBI at infield. He was hit by 19 pitches — more than anyone on the roster — and posted a .383 on-base percentage. He also threw 3.2 scoreless innings on the mound.

Max Price (.263, 6 HR, 24 RBI) and Austin Pierzynski (.240, 7 HR, 18 RBI) both return behind the plate. Price, a redshirt junior from Northridge, Calif., slugged .526 in 34 games. Pierzynski, a freshman from Orlando, showed power in 39 games.

Baylor Roberts, a freshman infielder from Baldwyn, Miss., hit .226 with 4 home runs, 31 RBI and 11 stolen bases across 57 games.

Pitching staff returning:

Brendan Conner posted the best ERA among returning arms with significant innings — 4.35 in 60 innings across 24 appearances. The sophomore from Corner, Ala., went 4-3 with two saves. Isaac Warrick, a redshirt junior lefty, had a 4.29 ERA in 21 innings.

Riley Miller went 5-1 with three saves and a 6.09 ERA in 44.1 innings. Carter Samuelson went 5-3 with a 7.05 ERA in 60 innings across 11 starts as a freshman.

The staff also returns Konner Keplinger (2-1, 34.1 IP), Justin Hicks (2-4, 37.0 IP), Christian Helmers (1-2, 30.1 IP) and Brooks House (12.2 IP). Four additional arms — Jacob Francis, Caden Kok, Josh Holley and Andrew Prejean — return after not appearing in the 2026 stat sheet.

What the Blazers lost

Waugh is the confirmed portal departure. He hit .322 with 7 home runs and 49 RBI — second on the team in RBI, third in batting average. He started all 58 games. He is headed to Southern Miss.

Wesley Helms, who hit .327 as a redshirt senior, and Chase Ingram, who threw 70.2 innings, have exhausted their eligibility.

What Casey Dunn built in 2026

The Blazers went 32-26 in Dunn’s fifth season — the most wins since 2015. The program set school records in home runs (85), hit-by-pitches (89) and bases on balls (297). UAB scored 436 runs, fourth-most in program history. The team stole 100 bases, also fourth-most.

Seven players earned All-Conference honors — the most since 1995. Five players collected 60 or more hits, the most in the American. Six players stole 10 or more bases, also the most in the conference.

The Blazers beat four Power 4 opponents and won two games against ranked teams — the third time in five seasons they accomplished that. They posted 11 Quad 1 and Quad 2 victories, tied for ninth-most among mid-major programs nationally.

UAB did not make regionals. Troy and Jacksonville State did — Troy went to the College World Series — and the Blazers finished behind both in the postseason picture. But 32 wins, a school-record 85 home runs and the first ABCA All-Region First Team selection in program history add up to a season that built something.

What’s coming in

UAB has eight incoming graduate additions listed on Perfect Game: catchers John Lindsey III (Petal, Miss.) and Jake Brown (Avondale Estates, Ga.), shortstop Rhys Jones (Birmingham), third baseman Cutter Smith (Naples, Fla.), right-handers Ashton Blair (Alabaster, Ala.), Caiden Caldera (Bartlett, Tenn.) and Eli Hubbert (Brewton, Ala.) and left-hander Isaiah Ludlow (Germantown, Tenn.).

The 2027 high school recruiting class includes outfielders Blake Davis (Apopka, Fla.) and Austin Barnett (Maylene, Ala.), shortstop Omari Burse (Pooler, Ga.) and catcher Jackson Loy (Rome, Ga.).

The point

Seventeen players announced they are coming back. The team’s best hitter — a player with the production to play anywhere in the Southeast — chose to stay. The pitching staff returns 60 percent of its innings. The program just set multiple school records.

College baseball rosters turn over faster than they used to. Programs lose their best players to the portal every spring, and the cycle resets. UAB lost one to it. The rest of the returning roster looked at what Casey Dunn is building on the Southside and decided it was worth being part of.

That is not a small thing.