The Crimson Tide baseball team added a veteran presence to the starting lineup when it landed catcher Brady Neal via the transfer portal in July.
Neal was selected in the 17th round of the 2022 MLB draft by the Milwaukee Brewers before he decided to pass on the opportunity and stick to his commitment to LSU. Coming from Tallahassee, Florida, he attended IMG Academy and was ranked as the No. 2 catcher and the No. 29 overall prospect in the class of 2022, according to Perfect Game.
He spent his previous two seasons at LSU, and he was the Tigers’ starting catcher as a freshman in 2023 before getting sidelined due to a back injury that kept him out during the team’s run to Omaha and a national championship. In 70 games across two years, he hit .251 with 12 home runs, 40 RBIs and a .918 OPS.
“There isn’t one thing that they told me in the portal that has been wrong or hasn’t come true. … What they say is what you are going to get, which is rare in college baseball,” Neal said on his decision to transfer to Alabama. “Plus the associate/pitching coach Jason Jackson is from Tallahassee, where I’m from, so I’ve always had that connection with him.”
With the Crimson Tide losing catcher Mac Guscette, who signed with the Atlanta Braves as an undrafted free agent in July, adding an experienced catcher from the transfer portal was beneficial.
“I’ve played in the SEC for two years now, and I have a good idea of what it looks like every year and what the team needs to do to win,” Neal said. “This team has a ton of experience already. We have guys like Will Hodo and Garett Stanton, who have both probably played around 200 career college games, plus you have a guy like Aeden Finateri, who has played four years in the ACC.”
In 2023, Brady got the pleasure of catching starting pitcher Paul Skenes, who was drafted first overall by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2023 MLB draft. Skenes took the baseball world by storm last season when he got called up to the MLB and instantly emerged as one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball. He also won NL Rookie of the Year and finished third in NL Cy Young voting.
“That was a really cool experience. It was tough, too,” Neal said. “That guy is obviously absolutely incredible at pitching the stuff he was able to do back then. The stuff he’s doing now is just absolutely crazy. In some of the games, catching Skenes was an unforgettable experience.”
Also in 2023, Brady hit in an LSU starting nine with major league talent top to bottom. He competed with players such as Dylan Crews, who won the 2023 Golden Spikes award and was selected No. 2 overall in the 2023 MLB draft to the Washington Nationals, and Tommy White, one of Neal’s high school teammates from IMG who was drafted 40th overall in the 2024 draft to the Oakland A’s.
Neal talked about what it was like to win a national championship in 2023 at LSU
“That was a really cool experience, that was a special team. I had a lot of really close friends on that team that I still talk to all the time,” he said. “It was just something that doesn’t happen to most players during their career, so it was awesome getting to take that in and learn how to work towards that goal every year.”
Fans can see Neal and the Crimson Tide play against Bradley on Opening Day Friday at 4 p.m. CT at Sewell-Thomas Stadium.
