With the 2026 MLB Draft completed on July 12, and two Anteaters ultimately being selected, it seemed like there would be no new developments for UCI. However, this was disproven when redshirt senior right-handed pitcher Finnegan Wall signed a free agent contract with the Minnesota Twins on July 30. Undrafted back in July, Wall was not ranked as a top 250 prospect as listed by MLB Pipeline. Neither was he ranked as a top 500 prospect by Baseball America coming into his final year of NCAA eligibility. Wall was one of six players and five right-handed pitchers picked up by the Twins as non-drafted free agents.
Wall began his Anteater career slowly, pitching in 2022 as a first year. Appearing in five games as a multi-inning reliever, he pitched nine innings, giving up ten earned runs whilst walking four and striking out seven batters. His results, however, improved dramatically over the summer as he pitched for the Appalachian League’s Greeneville Flyboys, based in Tennessee. Pitching substantial innings for the first time, he appeared in ten games, where he struck out 39 batters and walked 18 in 45 innings of work.
Starting nine of games, Wall pitched to a respectable earned run average (ERA) of 3.00.
Coming back to Big West play for the 2023 season, Wall returned to pitching mostly out of the bullpen. Out of 20 appearances, he made the start just five times. Nevertheless, 2023 proved he belonged in college baseball’s top flight. Wall pitched a career high 41.1 innings at a 4.35 ERA, where he struck out 35 batters while walking 12. His most notable achievement during the season was surpassing his career high in innings for a single game, going 4.1 innings in a start against the University of Hawai’i Rainbow Warriors. During that game, he gave up just two earned runs and struck out five, a career high at that point.
A self-proclaimed Red Sox fan, Wall pitched for the Massachusetts-based Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox in the Cape Cod League, a collegiate summer league on the East Coast. Making seven starts, this was the first time Wall pitched exclusively as a starter in a season in both collegiate summer and Big West Conference play. Pitching in seven games, he set career bests in strikeout rate, hits per nine innings and ERA — striking out 38 batters and walking 15 in 34 innings.
Disaster struck for Wall in 2024 as he was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament before throwing a single pitch. His season ended as he went under the knife for Tommy John Surgery, the common name for ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction. Wall unfortunately did not complete his recovery in time for collegiate summer league play.
Losing an invaluable year, the now-redshirt junior sought to bounce back in 2025, but struggled as he bounced between being a starter and reliever. The results were poor; in 30.1 innings, Wall gave up 24 earned runs, striking out just 27 batters whilst walking 15. His ERA was 7.12. Illustrative of his struggles with control, his walk rate spiked to its highest point in his college career and his walks and hits per innings pitched (WHIP) sat at 1.714, the highest since his brief redshirt freshman year.
2026 marked a year removed from his Tommy John recovery and marked significant improvements to Wall’s statistics. He made seven starts out of 14 total appearances, pitching a career-high 58 innings and striking 47 batters while walking 19. Wall pitched into the seventh inning twice in 2026, both career highs as a college pitcher. These improvements, a reflection of being two years removed from major elbow surgery, also showed in a dramatically lower 4.03 ERA on the season.
After the 2026 season, Wall pitched for the Aberdeen Ironbirds in the MLB Draft League, a showcase league meant, as the name implies, to show off talent before the July amateur draft. In 25.2 innings of work, he pitched to an ERA of 4.21. Despite giving up less hits on a rate basis, he also struck out less and walked more batters per inning than he did as an Anteater.
Despite the lack of overpowering stuff or a consistent ability to limit contact, Wall’s journey proved to be one of endurance amidst a crushing setback. His ceiling, showed off in summer collegiate play, was derailed due to his season-ending elbow injury. Nevertheless, he returned and continued to show spurts of greatness, no doubt motivating his pickup by the Twins.
Wall will be missed as an ever-reliable arm, willing to take the ball as either reliever or starter, by the Anteater faithful.
Stanley Shi is a Sports Staff Writer for the summer 2026 quarter. He can be reached at szshi@uci.edu.
Edited by Benjamin Flores and Tracy Sandoval.
Stanley is a second-year Global Studies and History double major. He began as a sports intern in the Spring 2026 quarter. Stanley is an avid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers and enjoys watching both baseball and ice hockey. In his free time he also reads non-fiction.