The Major League Baseball Draft begins on Saturday, and the last efforts for college coaches at holding together their current recruiting classes. Fighting the draft is a difficult task, especially after they just spent the last month navigating the transfer portal window.
LSU’s latest
On Sunday, LSU lost its first player for next season. Surprisingly, it wasn’t to the draft. It was to UCLA.
That news came after CJ Weinstein announced he’d be flipping to the Bruins. That dwindles their 2026 signing class to 22. The next step is figuring out how many players are going to leave for the Draft.
The Tigers saw eight players leave a season ago, and they are expected to hover around that number this year. That’s expected when you sign that many elite level players out of high school. Once again, LSU signed more than anyone else in America.
Of the 22 players they signed this cycle, a whopping 15 of them were ranked four or five-stars. To put that in perspective, Baseball America ranked 144 players in the country as four or five-star recruits, so LSU signed over ten percent of the total. It’s the most of any team in the country.
Where the top talent is heading
Where is the top talent around the country committed to play next year? Spoiler alert, it’s mostly the SEC.
The league once again finished with 12 teams ranked in the top 25. Of the 52 total five-stars in Baseball America’s final rankings, 37 of them are committed to SEC schools. Over 61 percent of the four and five-stars (88 of 144) are committed to SEC schools and 67 of the top 100 players in the country are, as well.
Here’s a look at which schools signed the most four and five stars in the 2026 cycle.
LSU – 15
Vanderbilt – 14
Tennessee – 11
Mississippi State – 8
Texas – 8
Oklahoma – 6
Auburn – 5
Florida – 5
Those eight schools had the most of any team in the conference and combined for 72, or half, of the total in the entire country by themselves.
Recruiting Rankings (via Perfect Game)
No. 1 LSU
No. 4 Ole Miss
No. 6 Tennessee
No. 7 Vanderbilt
No. 9 Alabama
No. 10 Mississippi State
No. 11 Auburn
No. 13 Arkansas
No. 15 South Carolina
No. 18 Oklahoma
No. 22 Texas
No. 25 Texas A&M
No. 31 Georgia
No. 37 Florida
No. 43 Missouri
No. 59 Kentucky
