2025 LSU Baseball Preview: Infielders

Monsters and Bears

The 2025 college baseball season is officially less than a week away so it’s about time we start looking ahead to spending our spring—and hopefully early summer—weekends at The Box.

Across the many, many college baseball polls, LSU is a top-five team across the board. In fact, they’ve been landing more as a top-three team heading into the season, ranking No. 2 by Perfect Game and Baseball America, while No. 3 by D1 Baseball and the USA Today Coaches Poll.

One big reason LSU’s ranked so highly heading into the season is the Tigers have a veteran infield that, on paper at least, might be the most talented collection in the country.

Jared “Bear” Jones is the face of this 2025 LSU team and according to D1 Baseball is the No. 1 first basemen in the country. Jones, who was a draft-eligible sophomore last season, didn’t get the number he was looking for from an MLB team and opted to return for 2025. That decision may prove to be the difference in LSU being a team good enough to make it to Omaha versus a team good enough to win in Omaha.

In his first season as a starting first basemen, Jones had a great 2024 upping his home run total from 12 in 2023 to 28, which was the fourth-most in an LSU single season. We knew he had power, but to me what impressed the most was his evolution into a more disciplined hitter. Jones increased his walks from 36 to 59 and his strikeout rate dropped from about 43 percent as a freshman to 33 percent last season. His on base percentage increased by about 30 points, while his slugging grew by more than 100 points.

I know I just hyped up his improved plate discipline, but make no mistake getting his big bat back is massive because this year’s LSU team probably won’t have nearly as many mashers as we’ve seen under Jay Johnson with guys like Dylan Crews, Tommy White, Jacob Berry, Brayden Jobert, Cade Beloso, or Hayden Travinski. Every lineup needs someone who can hit the absolute piss out of the ball and Jones is the one proven commodity on this year’s team that could go deep any time he’s at the plate.

Jones is also a better defender than he’s probably given credit for, and with his massive 6’4”, 253-pound frame he’s about as ideal as a target for the left side of the infield.

Speaking of that left side of the infield, reports out of fall ball and preseason scrimmages seem to suggest LSU will have familiar faces in new places this spring. Steven “Monster” Milam appears to be getting first crack at shortstop, while Michael Braswell is sliding over to third base.

Milam played second last season and earned freshman All-American honors with a .326 average and 12 doubles, three triples, eight homers, 40 RBI, 51 runs and seven stolen bases. Does height matter? Jay Johnson doesn’t seem to think so, as he’s called Milam LSU’s best defensive infielder; and LSU’s had success before with an undersized shortstop from New Mexico.

Johnson will almost definitely tinker with the starting lineup throughout the early portion of the season so there is a very good chance Braswell gets some run at shortstop, a place he has started for multiple seasons. That said, come SEC play Braswell will probably be LSU’s every day third basemen and it’s a spot that’s most likely better suited for him. Braswell’s arm is more than good enough to play the position and while he probably won’t launch double digit homers this season, LSU could do a lot worse than having a fourth-year senior hitting .300 in the back end of the lineup.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know” as the old adage goes, and that’s why incoming transfer Daniel Dickinson is at LSU and is the crown jewel of the Tigers’ top-rated transfer class. Dickinson, formerly of Utah Valley, played for former LSU hitting coach Eddie Smith, and now the projected first round pick is off to the SEC to show he can hang with the best conference in the country.

Dickinson hit .369 in two seasons with Utah Valley and comes into 2025 as the No. 3 ranked second basemen according to Perfect Game, and the No. 12 collegiate prospect for this summer’s MLB Draft.

Dickinson did pretty much any and all things baseball related exceptionally well last season. He hit .363 last season with 18 homers, stole 32 bases, and has a really good glove, too. He’ll likely leadoff for LSU and there’s a chance he leads the Tigers in hits this season…if he lives up to the hype that is.

LSU’s hit as big as anyone in the transfer portal under Jay Johnson but—pardon the baseball pun—nobody bats 1.000. For every Paul Skenes or Tommy White, there’s a Jacob Berry or a Mac Bingham who don’t quite live up to the hype. Where Dickinson falls on this spectrum remains to be seen, but if he is who he’s advertised as being and can handle the step up from the WAC to the SEC, then LSU’s got an All-American/first round pick on their hands.

Last season LSU brought back all of its catching depth. This season is the literal opposite as LSU brings back none of its catching depth. Hayden Travinski and Alex Milazzo exhausted all of their eligibility, while Brady Neal transferred to Alabama as part of the Luke Holman Trade.

Heading into fall, the catcher job looked like it was a four-man race between Luis Hernandez, Cade Arrambide, Blaise Priester, and Eddie Yamin. Now, as the season approaches, it looks like Hernandez and Arrambide will rotate at catcher, Priester will factor in more as a DH, while Yamin will be the depth.

Adding Hernandez out of Indiana State might be a sneaky great addition by Johnson and his staff. In my opinion, Hernandez has the advantage for the starting position as evidenced by the fact that he started for three years. He was First-Team All-MVC and made the All-Defensive team last season, and in 2023 he was the starting DH for that Sycamore team that won its regional and should have hosted a Super Regional but couldn’t for reasons outside of their control.

Last season Hernandez’s stock exploded thanks to his .359 average, 14 doubles, 23 homers and 76 RBI. He is ranked as a top-10 catcher in the nation according to D1 Baseball.

Hernandez may be the catcher of the present, but if everything goes to plan then Cade Arrambide is the catcher of the future. Arrambide is the highest ranked catcher prospect to ever make it to campus and it feels like only a matter of time before he’s starting behind the plate on an every day basis.