The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets may have one of the best lineups in college baseball headed into 2026, but they also have a promising pitching staff – something that has been somewhat of a weakness in recent years.

Headlining the weekend rotation will be junior right-hander, Tate McKee who took the mound for all 16 of Georgia Tech’s Friday night matchups in 2025 as a sophomore. Across 80 innings, McKee posted a 4.84 ERA, 4.56 FIP, and a 22.9% strikeout rate as the Jackets won 12 of the 16 games in which McKee took the mound. As Georgia Tech takes the field in 2026 with Omaha aspirations, McKee enters the season with an up arrow next to his name as he tries to establish himself as an ace on a championship-caliber team. With a full year of starting under his belt after working mostly out of the bullpen in his freshman year, there’s reason to believe McKee takes another big step forward in 2026.

McKee ended his sophomore campaign on a high note with two strong postseason starts. In the opener at the ACC tournament, he delivered 6 and 1/3 innings of two run ball against Cal, striking out ten while allowing just one walk. He followed that up with another impressive outing at the Oxford regional against Western Kentucky in which he allowed just one run while striking out six across seven innings.

The 6’3″, 210 pound right-hander features a wide pitch-mix including two fastball shapes, a cutter, slider, a big curveball, and a changeup. An arsenal this deep is rare to find at the amateur level and McKee does show some feel with each offering. His fastball ran as high as 96 mph with improved command this fall and in some pre-season action. He mixes in a sinker-ish two-seam fastball with a lot of arm side run to complement the four-seam and garner a lot of ground-ball contact.

Perhaps the best offerings in McKee’s arsenal are the mid-80s slider and high-80s cutter. Both are tight breaking balls but the slider has more two-plane action and is more of a chase/whiff inducing breaking ball while the cutter is a platoon-neutral pitch to drop in the strike zone and induce soft contact. He’ll drop in the mid-80s curveball with a ton of drop and he’ll flash the changeup which has shown some glimpses of being an above-average pitch.

The recipe for McKee’s success this spring will largely include improved strike-throwing and pitch-ability. He has the stuff to be an ace at the college level, but he also could use some refinement in putting his arsenal into action. It was only a 12.4% strikeout minus walk rate while hitters slashed .265/.353/.432 against him in 2025. The execution of McKee’s well-rounded arsenal will be one of the top things to follow when it comes to Georgia Tech’s pitching staff.

McKee is draft-eligible this July and very well may end up with a pro club by year’s end. The stuff could land McKee in the middle rounds while added polish this spring could certainly help him climb up draft boards.