Closing the book on ‘24 and a way too early look ahead to ‘25
If y’all didn’t know, I’m a teacher by day. And even though school’s out for the summer I’ve still got one last grade to hand out.
How would you grade the 2024 LSU baseball season? I’m thinking a C+ might be fair. LSU came into 2024 a top-5 team by most college baseball publications and got off to a great pre-conference start with a 16-2 record. The highlight of the pre-conference schedule was sweeping the Astros Foundation Classic in Houston and scoring a pair of nice OOC wins over Texas and ULL.
Plenty of ink has been spilled on this site and several others about LSU’s poor first half opening of SEC play. Does a strong finish in the second half of SEC play and a run to the SEC Tournament championship game erase the 3-12 SEC start? Ehh. Does LSU winning more games in its regional than Vanderbilt, Arkansas, and Mississippi State erase it? See that I can be talked into! Especially since LSU won more NCAA games (3) than the ‘Dores and Hawgs did (2) combined.
But the fact of the matter is, getting eliminated in the Regional round and finishing 11th in the SEC ain’t good enough for this program. You can’t be The Powerhouse of college baseball and finish outside the top-10 of your own conference. Jay Johnson knows that and there’s not a single coach in all of college baseball I would take over him.
Jay might be the best in the game but that doesn’t mean he’s infallible. For the first time in his tenure here he missed on some portal targets. Mac Bingham hit .300 in three seasons at Arizona and was a .360 hitter twice. He hit .251 this season and .200 in SEC games. You were hoping Justin Loer would be a major weapon in the bullpen, but instead he had a 5.92 ERA and in conference games it was 8.68. Michael Braswell’s bat came alive toward the end of the season and you found something with him hitting leadoff, but he had a .940 fielding percentage and a league-leading 13 errors at shortstop.
Another downfall for LSU this season was a lack of development from players entering their second year with the program. Paxton Kling was never going to be Dylan Crews but he couldn’t stay in the starting lineup because he was a near-automatic out at the plate. For the second year in a row Brady Neal missed significant time (22 games missed) because of injury and when he was out there he was responsible for six of LSU’s seven passed balls this season. Thatcher Hurd was your opening day starter and him going 2.2 innings against VMI ought to have been a sign of things to come. To his credit, Hurd looked like Omaha Hurd in his start against North Carolina, but how different would 2024 have been if LSU got more performances like that from him? What if Kling hits .300 and isn’t usurped by freshman Jake Brown? What if Neal stays healthy?
But what’s done is done. LSU was two outs away from hosting West Virginia at The Box this weekend but it just wasn’t meant to be, so now we’ll take a way too early look at the 2025 roster.
Let’s start with who won’t be on the roster next year. This is by no means a definitive list. It’s just my opinion on who’s going get drafted and sign with an MLB team, and I think I’ve got all the players that are out of eligibility. Then again we’ve got football players entering their 7th and 8th year of school so who knows. I’ve also started a list of guys who have entered the portal. If I missed anyone let me know.
- Tommy White, Gage Jump, Luke Holman are all going to get drafted within the first 60 picks or so and will sign.
- Thatcher Hurd may not be picked as highly as those three, but he’ll get drafted and sign.
- Alex Milazzo, Hayden Travinski, Christian Little, Ben Nippolt, Will Hellmers, Mac Bingham and Nate Ackenhausen are all out of eligibility
- The Transfer Portal window opened on Monday and so far Aiden Moffett and Micah Bucknam have entered. Players have until July 2 to enter the portal.
So that’s who definitely won’t be on the roster, now let’s look at who could be.
I think that we’d all agree that the biggest names who have a decision to make are Jared Jones and Griffin Herring. Jones and Herring are both draft-eligible sophomores and I’ve seen them ranked in the 100-120 range as prospects in July’s Draft. Can either be talked into staying one more season? Michael Braswell could also enter the draft, but he doesn’t project nearly as high as Bear and Herring.
Personally I think Herring’s more likely to stay than Jones. Jones cut down on his strikeout rate, flashed his power at the plate, and frankly he’s probably not going to get that much better defensively. He’s fine—he’ll never be the defensive wiz that Tre’ Morgan is—but his glove is probably as good as it’s ever going to be and even if first base isn’t in his professional future he could always be a DH.
Herring, on the other hand, could make himself a lot of money if he comes back and is in the weekend rotation. If he’s a top-100ish prospect now just as LSU’s top bullpen arm, imagine where his stock would be after a year of starting in the new-look SEC. But would he be part of the rotation? Maybe, but it’s not a given. Jay Johnson and Nate Yeskie are probably hoping youngsters like Cam Johnson, Kade Anderson, and Jaden Noot take that next step in their development and turn into starters. There’s also the return of Chase Shores to look forward to. And while I don’t know who he’ll go after, I’d bet everything I have that Jay Johnson will go after a proven starter out of the transfer portal. So is there room for Herring? If it’s me I say “absolutely” and insert Herring into the rotation somewhere. But I’m not Jay Johnson and, more importantly, I’m not an MLB team potentially offering Herring seven figures.
Speaking of MLB teams offering life-changing money, LSU once again has one of the top recruiting classes in the country…so expect it to get pillaged by the Draft. C’est la vie. LSU top-three signees, Konnor Griffin, William Schmidt, and Cam Caminti, are all projected to go in the first 20 picks of the Draft. NIL is good, but it ain’t that good so there’s a better chance that I’m playing for LSU next spring than any of those three.
Keep it locked as we get closer to the draft and keep an eye on that transfer portal.