ORLANDO – A pair of Varsity Knights have been named to Opening Day rosters for the 2026 Major League Baseball season that gets under way today. Veteran utility player Dylan Moore will open the 2026 campaign with the Philadelphia Phillies while rookie infielder Alex Freeland has made his first Opening Day roster with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
After spending seven seasons with the Seattle Mariners as well as part of 2025 with the Texas Rangers, the 2024 Gold Glove Award Winner Moore joined the Phillies as a free agent in the offseason and made the club’s Opening Day roster for 2026. Moore, who has played in 689 career games in the Big Leagues, holds a .206 career batting average and a .693 OPS.
Moore played in a career-best 135 games for the Mariners in 2024 and hit .201 with a .687 OPS, 10 home runs, 23 doubles, 37 extra-base hits, 42 RBIs and 53 runs scored. He also stole 32 bases that season as he put up career numbers in nearly every category and led the Mariners that season in a couple of categories. He followed that up by playing in 106 games while splitting time with the Mariners and Rangers last season. Moore posted a a .201 average, .641 OPS, 11 homers, five doubles, 14 stolen bases, 25 RBIs and 35 runs scored a season ago.
Moore, who played his junior and senior seasons with UCF in 2014 and 2015, was a seventh-round pick of the Rangers in 2015.
Freeland, who was called up to the Big Leagues with the Dodgers for the first time last summer, will open the 2026 season on Los Angeles’ Big League roster. As one of the Dodgers top prospects, Freeland played in 29 games for Los Angeles last season. He hit .190 with a .602 OPS. He also tallied five extra-base hits, 11 walks, six runs batted in, 10 runs scored and 16 total hits.
Last season with Triple-A Oklahoma City, Freeland batted .263 with an .835 OPS. He had 30 doubles, 16 home runs, 77 runs scored, 82 RBIs and 18 stolen bases over 106 games in Triple A. In limited action in Spring Training this spring, Freeland had five hits, four runs scored, seven RBIs and 13 walks.
Freeland played the 2021 and 2022 seasons for the Knights. He was drafted in the third round by the Dodgers in 2022.
Two other former Knights are currently on MLB coaching staffs in UCF Hall of Famers Chad Mottola and Drew Butera. Mottola is in his 11th season as the hitting coach for the Tampa Bay Rays while Butera is in his first season with the Toronto Blue Jays as a Major League coach.
A number of other Varsity Knights will begin the season in the Minor Leagues. Right-handed pitcher Ben Lively, who is currently coming back from Tommy John surgery has been assigned to Cleveland’s Columbus Clippers for the time being as well as left-handed pitcher Colton Gordon with Houston’s Sugar Land Space Cowboys. Lively was Cleveland’s Opening Day starting pitcher a season ago while Gordon spent the majority of the 2025 season in Houston’s starting rotation.
ABOUT UCF ATHLETICS
UCF is a proud member of the Big 12 Conference. Our mission is to positively transform the lives of our students academically, athletically, and personally through a nationally competitive intercollegiate athletics program that enhances the reputation and visibility of the University. We strive to be Florida's preeminent athletic program, representing UCF and our community with distinction on the national stage as "Orlando's Hometown Team". To learn more about UCF and Athletics, please visit our websites at www.ucf.edu and www.ucfknights.com.