By Hunt Palmer
Baseball season is rapidly approaching. Jay Johnson’s 2025 team is ranked in the top five no matter where you look. The incoming portal class was ranked No. 1 by multiple outlets, and the freshman class earned that honor as well.
The force that was a 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation is gone, and so is the thunderous bat of Tommy White. But some familiar faces return as well, and, as usual, the anticipation around the program is ratcheted up this time of year.
Let’s continue a look around the roster for this 2025 LSU baseball team with relief pitching.
WHO’S GONE: Griffin Herring (MLB Draft), Nate Ackenhausen (MLB Draft), Fidel Ulloa (MLB Draft), Aiden Moffett (Transfer: Texas), Nic Bronzini (Transfer: Washington), Justin Loer (MLB Draft), Christian Little (MLB Draft), Micah Bucknam (Transfer: Dallas Baptist), Cam Johnson (Transfer: Oklahoma)
WHO’S BACK: Gavin Guidry, Kade Woods, Jaden Noot, DJ Primeaux
WHO’S NEW: Conner Ware (Transfer: Meridian College), Cooper Williams (Freshman), Dalton Beck (Transfer: Incarnate Word), Jacob Mayers (Transfer: Nicholls), Chandler Dorsey (Transfer: South Florida), Connor Benge (Transfer: Dallas Baptist), Mavrick Rizy (Freshman), Dylan Thompson (Freshman), Grant Fontenot (Transfer: ULL)
If you can’t tell, LSU has overhauled the entire pitching staff. That has a way of happening when eight pitchers were drafted last summer running the two-year total to 15. So, Jay Johnson and Nate Yeskie went portal shopping and assembled a deep, deep staff. How the roles shake out is very much to be determined.
Yesterday we profiled the potential starters, and plenty of relief innings will go to that group. I think freshmen Casen Evens and William Schmidt will pitch out of the bullpen. Gavin Guidry feels like a reliever to me. And I think there’s a good chance Zac Cowan sees time in relief. But let’s talk about this group.
Ware looks like a star. That case has been made routinely the last two months after a strong fall.
Transfers Chandler Dorsey and Connor Benge have relief experience at the Division 1 level. Benge, specifically, has looked very strong early in preseason scrimmages. He’s got a fastball in the mid 90s. Dorsey throws a heavy fastball and has closing experience. He did not allow a run and struck out 13 in 8 1/3 innings on The Cape last summer. He also saved eight games for USF last season while leading the Bulls in appearances.
Speaking of veterans, Mayers has been Nicholls’ ace for two seasons. He strikes out a ton of hitters and gives up very few hits. Good recipe, right? Sure, if it were not for the fact that he’s led the nation in walks issued in back-to-back seasons. The fastball is mid-90s, and the breaking ball is devastating. He just doesn’t command it well enough.
Rizy is 6-foot-9 and throws really hard. He had a great outing last week in a scrimmage. He just needs some polish.
Beck made headlines hitting a ton for Incarnate Word last year, but he’s a lefty with a low 90s fastball and a good enough slider to help a little bit.
Speaking of lefties, LSU landed Cooper Williams at the 11th hour from Texas A&M when Jim Schlossnagle left for Texas. Williams profiles as a starter in the future but has good enough stuff to get outs.
Of the returners, Primeaux figures in because he’s left-handed.
HUNT’S TAKE: As of February 6, it feels like Ware, Benge and Dorsey are probably the front of this group. I think Guidry and Evans fit in well, too.
Ware looks cut out for the Griffin Herring role. Herring was a superstar for LSU last year, slamming the door on win after win. When LSU struggled early, he closed wins. When they were rolling late, he closed wins. When they had to have him in the Sunday game against Wofford in the Regional, he closed he win with six innings of work.
Ware is left-handed with a smooth delivery. He throws in the low 90s like Herring and gets a lot of swings and misses with his breaking balls like Herring.
While having six or eight bullpen options that can throw high leverage innings is ideal, really just three or four is enough to be a great team.
LSU needs some combination of Ware-Guidry-Cowan-Evans-Schmidt-Benge-Dorsey-Mayers to step up.
That’s not to diminish the ability of arms like Williams, Rizy and Fontenot. They could certainly help. Every single year a couple of arms step forward that most didn’t see coming. As that happens, we’ll react to it then.
My gut tells me that Ware and Guidry close games, Cowan bridges long gaps, and the standouts among the Evans, Schmidt, Benge, Dorsey, Mayers crew are called upon in high leverage spots.
I don’t trust Mayers at this point, but he’s the wild card. It’s always tantalizing to hold onto hope with stuff like that, but a pair of 0-out walks in a tight spot is just not something you can deal with more often than not. He’s suseptible to that.
Though it’s an entirely new cast of characters, LSU’s bullpen looks to be a strength,
NEXT UP: Designated Hitter
