How Transfer To Arkansas Helped Charles Davalan Blossom Into A Rising MLB Draft Prospect
Image credit: Charles Davalan (Photo by Eddie Kelly / ProLook Photos)
The road to Arkansas rarely looks like this—certainly not for a kid from Montreal who grew up with a hockey stick in hand and ice under blades.
But Charles Davalan, the Razorbacks’ electric sophomore outfielder, has never been one for convention.
Davalan’s journey traces a striking arc, one that’s taken him from frozen rinks in Quebec to solo living in Florida at 15 to a lone Division I offer from Florida Gulf Coast, where he proved from day one that he’d been overlooked. And now, just a season removed from that freshman campaign, he’s thriving in the most cutthroat league college baseball has to offer.
“To me, it’s the challenge,” Davalan told Baseball America. “Baseball’s a game of failure, and I like that about it. You can always improve every day.”
That philosophy has defined Davalan and served him well.
When the pandemic shuttered organized baseball across Canada, Davalan made the bold decision to move 1,500 miles away to enroll at TNXL Academy in Ocoee, Florida, a specialized high school alternative program where players swap traditional classrooms for digital coursework and four-and-a-half-hour training blocks four days a week to hone their craft. It was a crash course in elite competition and a proving ground.
“I just wanted a chance to be seen,” Davalan said.
And he was.
Florida Gulf Coast University extended his only Division I offer, and Davalan didn’t waste it. As a freshman, he batted .288 with 10 home runs, 16 doubles, two triples and a team-best 66 runs scored while splitting time between second base and the outfield. His blend of speed, bat-to-ball skill and defensive versatility made him one of the more productive and dynamic newcomers in the country.
“I was extremely blessed just to be able to play every day,” Davalan said. “The team was a bit older, and just seeing those guys go about their business, it taught me to not panic when things aren’t going well and not get too high when they are.”
But numbers only tell part of the story.
For Davalan, that freshman season was as much about adaptation as it was production. Baseball was still relatively new to him—he’d committed full-time to the sport only a few years earlier—and the learning curve was steep. But when the game started to slow down, everything else accelerated.
Then, like so many in today’s collegiate landscape, he hit the transfer portal in search of something more.
“I just wanted to play with the best,” Davaland said. “If you practice with the best, play against the best, that’s how you get the best out of yourself.”
It was a calculated leap with one shot to stick the landing before he became a draft-eligible sophomore. So when a visit to Arkansas confirmed what Davalan already sensed—that the Razorbacks were the right fit—he committed. The program’s pedigree, a clear lane for playing time in the outfield and a coaching staff steeped in professional development made it an easy decision.
“I felt it from the start,” Davalan said.
Surrounded by thumpers, Davalan has brought contrast to the Arkansas lineup. He’s a table-setter who punishes mistakes and a contact artist with speed and feel for the game beyond his years. The leap from mid-major to the nation’s premier baseball conference in the SEC is massive, but Davalan’s production hasn’t blinked.
As of April 24, he was slashing .377/.461/.640 with 12 home runs, eight doubles and a triple. He’d struck out just once more than he homered. His 91.9% overall contact rate and 93.5% in-zone contact rate from the start of the season through April 18 reflected his maturity.
“Every weekend, you’re facing a guy with legit stuff,” Davalan said. “Even on Sundays, it’s a guy who might be the seventh-best pitcher on the staff, and he’s still really good. The coaches here have just helped me be more consistent with my at-bats. Don’t throw any away.”
Much of Davalan’s improvement has come through Arkansas’ investment—and his own interest—in data.
Where FGCU’s relatively limited resources allowed for more modest access to technology, the Razorbacks run daily TrackMan reports, track swing metrics with sensors and emphasize pitch data in player development. Davalan has soaked it up.
He trained his bat speed by swinging differently weighted bats. He examined his bat angle to maximize its impact. He credited hitting coach Nate Thompson for opening his eyes to a wealth of information he’d otherwise never considered and teaching him how to apply it to his game to aid in his own development.
“We worked on that a lot, and it’s helped,” Davalan said. “I’m a believer in playing the game the right way, but if you can combine that with science and analytics, it’s the best combo.”
The result? Better zone control, stronger contact quality and a growing sense that his ceiling remains untapped. While Davalan doesn’t yet possess massive power, he believes it’s coming. Not through brute force, but through repetition and refinement.
“I think my power will show more the more pitches I see,” he said. “It’s not just about strength. It’s about knowing how to hit certain pitch types. With experience, that’ll come.”
It already has, in flashes. And it’s a contributing factor in why, with the MLB Draft just months away, Davalan’s name is popping up more and more.
He won’t say much about that, though. Not yet.
“You for sure think about it,” he said, “but I’m just trying to do the best I can for Arkansas. We haven’t won a national championship yet. That’s the main goal.”
