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South Carolina baseball player Kennedy Jones found himself, unexpectedly, the subject of an online rumor after his new head coach spoke on the team’s roster turnover entering the offseason. Listeners claimed that he’d decided to transfer.
Jones quickly shut those lies down, saying he has no plans of entering the portal.
The Gamecocks hired retired LSU coach Paul Mainieri to replace fired head coach Mark Kingston in May. The former Tiger won a national championship in Baton Rouge in 2009 and finished his Louisiana State tenure with two trips to the Super Regionals in his final three seasons.
Despite success, he walked away from the sport amid health concerns.
Mainieri says that after three years on the sidelines, he’s ready to give it another go.
New @GamecockBasebll Head Coach Paul Mainieri walks us through his decision to return to coaching and why he chose South Carolina. pic.twitter.com/NMCNrLKHHu
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) June 20, 2024
“Over the course of these last three years, I’ve just started to feel much more healthy,” he said on the Paul Finebaum Show earlier this week. “Each year I’ve felt so much better, and more energetic, and so forth. You can only play so much golf…
“I was really kind of bored. I listened to a couple of schools that tried to get me out of retirement, but they just weren’t the right fit for me. When Ray Tanner called me just a couple weeks ago, that was one that got my attention. I can’t think of a program that’s any more like LSU than South Carolina.”
He’s apparently been making the media rounds this week, as he also spoke with SportsTalk SC on Thursday to talk about the future of his new program.
In doing so, he commented on the outlook of a few different players who have decisions to make about the upcoming season.
Kennedy Jones was brought into that conversation.
Jones was a solid player for the Gamecocks in 2024, hitting .289 with nine bombs and 48 RBIs. The outfielder, who transferred in from UNC Wilmington, was expected to be back in Columbia in 2025.
That became a bit uncertain after Paul Mainieri’s SportsTalk interview.
“In order to be a good defensive player, and a good offensive player, you’ve got to be a pretty good ball player all-around. Many of those guys are signing professionally… That’s what we’re trying to find [at South Carolina].
“Obviously, we’re trying to find some thump in our lineup if we lose Cole Messina, and Kennedy [Jones], and some other guys that could hit.”
-Paul Mainieri on the Gamecocks’ MLB Draft outlook
While it seemed Mainieri was hinting at Kennedy Jones opting to forego his final year to turn pro, some took the comment as a decision to leave the program via transfer.
One now-deleted tweet began to make the rounds Thursday night with a strong suggestion that Jones was headed for the portal.
The South Carolina slugger quickly shut the narrative down.
Well this is news to me 🤣🤣🤣 https://t.co/398APzeGtf
— Kennedy Jones (@SaucyKen8) June 21, 2024
Further echoing those sentiments, assistant coach Monte Lee also chimed in with a definitive take on Mainieri’s original comments.
Completely false on Kennedy Jones. Coach Mainieri discussed the possibility of losing Kennedy to the draft because we all know he’s a dude. He’s not in the portal.
That’s that!
While Jones still has a decision to make on whether or not he’ll return to the South Carolina baseball team, those transfer rumors can be put to rest. The outfielder will now wait to hear his name called in the MLB Draft before moving forward with his future plan.