In what has been dubbed the "Year of the Catcher," seemingly every team that punched its ticket to the 2026 College World Series boasts an elite backstop. At Georgia, the incredible Daniel Jackson heads to Omaha, Nebraska, as the most highly regarded player in the sport and is a key reason why the Bulldogs are the highest-seeded team still alive in the NCAA Tournament. Numerous others join him to represent the position well in the final stage of the college baseball postseason.
It takes more than just an elite catcher in a lineup to build an Omaha-caliber roster, but where would Texas be without Carson Tinney? Would Troy have pulled off its Cinderella run without Jimmy Janicki cementing himself as a rising 2027 draft prospect? Perhaps Oklahoma would not have mashed its way through the regional and super regional rounds without Deiten Lachance. And Brady Neal reaching his potential has been integral to Alabama's success.
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A few of the pitchers who throw to them are bright stars in their own right. The CWS will feature a couple of aces with major big-league upside. Dylan Volantis, for one, has "eventual Golden Spikes Award winner" written all over him.
Here are the 10 best players who will shine at Charles Schwab Field Omaha.
Daniel Jackson, C, Georgia
Georgia leads the nation in home runs, and the Golden Spikes Award favorite is one of the many reasons why the Bulldogs head into Omaha with 174 long balls on the year. Daniel Jackson became the first catcher in college baseball history to compile 25 round-trippers and 25 stolen bases in a single season, and that was all the way back in the middle of May. He is up to 31 blasts on the year (thanks in part to a two-homer super regional), and he does not sacrifice any contact to achieve that power as a .396 hitter. Jackson closed the regular season with the SEC triple crown; if that does not make someone the best offensive player in the nation, then nothing does. He may not project as a catcher in the pros, but by college standards, his defense gets the job done.
Dylan Volantis, LHP, Texas
The best pitcher remaining in the tournament hails from Texas. In just his first year as a full-time starter, Dylan Volantis proved that the stuff he showed in the Longhorns' bullpen last season translates wonderfully to an ace role. He will be an early first-round pick in the 2027 MLB Draft, but first, he has his sights set on a national championship and the potential emergence next spring as the face of college baseball. The lefty spun a 2.03 ERA across 15 starts heading into the CWS and ranks ninth nationally with 126 strikeouts. Even on his less polished days, he remains unbeatable. Last weekend, despite throwing a season-high four wild pitches and allowing 13 baserunners, he earned a comfortable win over Oregon.
Gavin Kelly, C/2B, West Virginia
It is not uncommon for catchers to play secondary positions, but they rarely split time between the backstop and the middle infield. Gavin Kelly showed off his versatility this year for West Virginia, manning the catcher duties and playing second base, and passing both tests with flying colors. The sophomore is more than just a defensive weapon, though. Batting .384 on the season, he posted at least one hit in all seven NCAA Tournament games with five doubles and four home runs. Kelly will not be draft eligible until next summer, but so long as he does not slow down in his junior year, it would be hard to envision anyone jumping ahead of him in the race for the 2027 No. 1 overall pick.
Jason DeCaro, RHP, North Carolina
As one of two North Carolina arms with an ERA of 2.28 or better, Jason DeCaro shines as the ace of what is arguably college baseball's most loaded pitching staff. He turned in some of his finest work last weekend in a do-or-die game for the Tar Heels, spinning a complete-game, two-hit shutout against a blistering USC offense. While DeCaro does not miss as many bats as one would expect for a hurler of his caliber, he did become the first Tar Heel to amass 200 career punchouts in seven years. All the more impressive is that he is young for his class, having debuted as a 17-year-old freshman in 2024.
Cade Townsend, RHP, Ole Miss
The numbers may not be as eye-popping as those of his ace counterparts in Omaha, but Cade Townsend is right there with the best arms in the CWS from a pure stuff perspective. Ole Miss' Friday night starter touches 98 with his fastball and delivers an arsenal of four filthy secondary pitches. When he strung together three consecutive quality starts in April, he became the first Rebels pitcher to do so since 2022, and he was at his most untouchable in the last of those outings when he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the always-frightening Tennessee lineup. Although he rarely goes deep into games and battled some control issues in his last couple of outings, Townsend is a deserved Golden Spikes Award semifinalist.
Aiden Robbins, OF, Texas
A monstrous sophomore year at Seton Hall, in which he batted .422, made Aiden Robbins one of last offseason's most prized transfer portal prospects. Texas won the sweepstakes and has since reaped the rewards. His bat is hotter now than at any other point in the season after he mashed four home runs in the Austin Regional and tacked on another in the super regional, and just like that, he is up to 10th nationally with 24 on the year. Few players in the country have Robbins' kind of skill at the dish, which might have been most apparent all the way back in February when he became the first Longhorn to hit for the cycle since 2015.
Maxx Yehl, LHP, West Virginia
The Big 12 Pitcher of the Year is one-half of a beastly Friday-Saturday duo at West Virginia. Maxx Yehl missed all of last season while recovering from Tommy John surgery and had a couple of injury scares this year -- most recently when he was lifted after two-thirds of an inning in his regional debut -- but he is electric when he is right. Five times this year, Yehl has gone seven innings or deeper, and that volume helped the southpaw tally the fifth-best ERA in the sport at 2.10. Lefties who can touch 95 mph on their fastball à la Yehl are like gold in college baseball.
Justin Lebron, SS, Alabama
Justin Lebron might be the most fun watch in Omaha. His play style as a terrific shortstop with unmatched speed on the basepaths made him, at one point last year, the favorite to become the top pick in the 2026 draft. That stock slipped ever so slightly with some regression this spring in his batting average (.277) and an uptick in errors (18), but he remains capable of singlehandedly willing Alabama to victories. Lebron is an elite run creator who enters the CWS with a remarkable 41-for-42 success rate in steal attempts. Charles Schwab Field Omaha, a cavernous venue by college baseball standards, is a place where Lebron can turn singles into doubles and put pressure on opposing pitchers every time he steps into the box.
Tre Phelps, 3B, Georgia
Tre Phelps has been a cornerstone of Georgia's rebuild under coach Wes Johnson. He arrived in 2024 along with the skipper and delivered nothing but star production in the three seasons since. There is something about the postseason that always brings out the best in Phelps, who was fantastic in his freshman super regional, batted .538 in his sophomore regional and bashed a home run at this year's Athens Regional. Phelps would be the most prolific power bat on most teams, yet his 19 bombs are good for only fourth-most in this otherworldly Bulldogs lineup.
Chansen Cole, RHP, West Virginia
Referring to Chansen Cole as the "other" elite arm in the West Virginia rotation is no slight against him but rather a testament to Yehl's stardom. Cole would be the ace of nearly every other staff in the nation. This time last year, Cole was a Division II pitcher. Now he ranks 38th in Division I with a 2.85 ERA and has more than 100 strikeouts to his name. It took about two months for Cole to really settle in, but he has emerged as one of the country's biggest breakouts in the time since. He went eight innings in a win over Texas Tech in April, tossed a complete game against Kansas State in May and has twice set career highs in strikeouts since the start of the NCAA Tournament.
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