CLEMSON — Each year since arriving at Clemson, head baseball coach Erik Bakich has shown plenty of willingness to make his team better through the transfer portal.

Each summer after determining his team’s needs, Bakich and the rest of his staff scout through the portal for who is available and how particular players might help the Tigers improve from one year to the next.

This offseason has been no different, with Clemson adding several portal players to the roster. Former Alabama pitcher Ariston Veasey, former Georgia INF/OF Bryce Clavon and former Loyola Marymount slugger Nate Savoie are just a few of the new additions.

However, each summer, one thing remains the same. No matter any player’s status, Bakich refuses to risk the culture he’s created by paying a new player more money than everyone else on the team is making. And Bakich readily admits he might be walking a fine line with some of those decisions.

“The summer is definitely the busiest time,” Bakich said. “You’ve got portal combat going on.”

“We went after the who’s who, and we had some who’s who guys here, but we just decided not to offer them because they weren’t a cultural fit. That was a little bit of a risky decision, but personally and philosophically, we are not going to win a bidding war and risk losing the locker room. We’ve got to get the best players out of the portal that we can get, but also that fit the team dynamic.”

Entering his fourth season at the helm, Bakich has cultivated a strong culture inside his locker room. One that is heavy on accountability and players having to earn most everything they get. In his eyes, no one player is worth risking that culture.

“This may be right, wrong or indifferent, but I just refuse to give a new player more money who hasn’t poured one ounce of blood, sweat, or tears into the program, hasn’t played one single pitch of Clemson baseball, and is demanding more than anyone else on the team. We will say adios to that dude every time,” Bakich said. We are just not going to do that.”

It’s a philosophy that everyone inside the facility has bought into and one that is producing results, even if last season might have ended a little earlier than most expected going in.

In each of his first three years, the Tigers have won more than 40 games, hosted a regional every year and even made an appearance in the Super Regionals for the first time since 2010.

The next obvious step is getting back to the College World Series, and Bakich believes he has the right culture in place to produce that kind of season.

“Because the culture in the locker room and having those current players know and believe and trust that we are going to take care of them first,” Bakich added. “We will do what we have to do to get good players in here, too, but we are not meeting the demands to win a bidding war like other teams are doing. We’re just not going to do it.”