UK Athletics Photo
Kentucky freshman shortstop Tyler Bell was the 66th pick overall by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft and was ranked as the nation’s 13th best freshman player by Perfect Game when he opted to play at UK instead of starting his professional career.
The switch-hitting shortstop played at Lincoln-Way East High School in Frankfort, Ill. — the same school that produced Ryan Ritter, a Gold Glove shortstop and fourth-round draft pick in 2022 after playing for Nick Mingione at Kentucky.
Bell is the third-highest rated UK recruit according to Perfect Game behind Alex Meyer and Ryan Hagenow.
Bell is coming off his best weekend at Kentucky and was named the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week, the first of what could be many honors for him at Kentucky.
His play helped Kentucky win two of three games at Texas A&M for its first SEC series win this season.
Bell had multiple hits all three games and eight hits in the series. He also had a hit in a midweek game for a SEC-high nine hits last week in just 17 at-bats, on the week.
Bell had a double in all three games at Texas A&M, homered in Saturday’s win during a UK-best 4-for-4 performance and drove in seven runs total. His week nearly was even better as a potential go-ahead home run with two outs in the ninth inning of UK’s only loss to the Aggies was caught at the wall.
Bell is hitting .347 with 28 runs, a team-best 10 doubles, five home runs, a team-high 31 RBI, five HBP and five stolen bases. He has reached base safely in all 26 UK games to open his career and has 11 total multi-hit and seven multi-RBI games.
The switch-hitting Bell had doubles from both sides of the plate and had hits in six straight official at-bats.
He is now hitting .400 in SEC play with a team-high 14 RBI and 27 total bases in nine games.
