By Hunt Palmer
As the last of the snow melted from the Alex Box Stadium rooftop Friday, Jay Johnson set the scene for the spring to come in Baton Rouge.
His Tigers, loaded with 24 newcomers and some familiar faces from the late-season surge in 2024, began practice officially just three weeks from Opening Day.
“We’ll have 18 practices over the next 21 days leading into Opening Day,” Johnson said. “We’ll scrimmage about 12 or 13 times including each of the next four days. I don’t know that we’re a young team, but we’re a new team. We’ve only got 12 guys who played in a game for us last year.”
LSU’s weekend rotation will be made over completely as Gage Jump and Luke Holman prepare for their first seasons of professional baseball. Griffin Herring will do the same, leaving a mammoth hole in the highest leverage innings LSU’s pitching staff worked last season.
LSU won six of Jump’s last seven starts and five of Holman’s last six. When Herring pitched in SEC games, LSU went 7-4. When he didn’t, LSU was 6-13.
Johnson says there are a handful of arms he’s encouraged by as starting rotation options and potential high-leverage stoppers.
Junior college transfer Conner Ware was the first name Johnson mentioned. He also brought up freshman Casan Evans, transfers Zac Cowen and Anthony Eyanson, and returners Gavin Guidry, Kade Anderson and Chase Shores.
That group will audition for not only a starting role but a chance to close games as well.
“Like it or not, one of our best pitchers is always going to be in the bullpen” Johnson said. “Everybody wants to start. I don’t really know why that’s such an important thing other than to see your name listed. But the most important outs happen from the seventh inning to the ninth inning. And they’re the hardest to get.”
Also gone is Tommy White who clubbed 48 home runs over two seasons in Baton Rouge. Hayden Travinski and his 16 home runs have moved on.
Johnson will need more than Jared Jones to hit for power, though Jones may be the best power hitter in the SEC this season. But there is more to offense than just slugging.
“I felt like we ended up being a good offensive team at the end of last year, but it was little bit reliant on Jared and Tommy hitting the ball over the fence,” Johnson said. “And both of them had 20. This year, I don’t know if there is (another player who can hit 20 (home runs). I don’t know that I want them to try to do that.
“I think there’s plenty of guys capable of hitting 8-to-12 (home runs). I think that is more predicated on what we do with the personnel…What’s that line in the movie Moneyball….you can’t replace (Jason) Giambi with one player. You try to do it with three. Maybe that’s what we’re trying to do with Tommy White.”
Speaking of Travinski, he, Alex Milazzo and Brady Neal are all gone. That’s all of LSU’s catching from a season ago.
Transfers Luis Hernandez, Blaise Priester and Eddie Yamin are joined by freshman Cade Arrambide in a hotly contested battle for the starting backstop duties.
Herandez and Arrambide have seemingly taken the early lead with weeks to go.
“Really pleased with Luis Hernandez. When you see a guy hit 23 homers with a bunch of at bats from a great program, Indiana State’s a great program…that experience is really, really valuable,” Johnson said. “He went into the portal, and then he got through the draft. The unknown was he didn’t catch a lot year because they had a ridiculously good defensive catcher, but he’s exceeded all of my expectations in where’s he’s at defensively.”
While Hernandez is stepping up in class from the Missouri Valley Conference, Arrambide is stepping up from high school to college, a stop he wasn’t guaranteed to make.
“Had he had maybe a lower opinion of himself in terms of a financial ask, he would not be at LSU right now,” Johnson said. “He had an outstanding fall. I think he hit right at .360. The at bats were way more professional than you would anticipate for someone with no exposure to this level of play. He’s obviously got power. The arm strength really jumps off the page at you. He’s well out ahead of maybe where you would think he could be.”
Contrary to the pitching staff and catching spots, the LSU outfield returns its three starters from last season’s final game at North Carolina.
Josh Pearson returns for his fourth year. Jake Brown and Ashton Larson earned starting roles as freshmen last year.
Chris Stanfield started in center field for Auburn last year. He’s transferred over, and freshman Derek Curiel has turned heads in his short time on campus.
Ethan Fry and Mic Paul have been on campus for three years and have dealt with injuries and health issues. All of that is resolved. And Dalton Beck was Southland Conference Newcomer of the Year last season at Incarnate Word.
“I have eight guys I could play out there, and I don’t know if there would be much drop off,” Johnson said. “Probably a lot of that will just determine on matchups, time of the year, a lot of things. I’m excited about the outfielders. We’ve done a really good job at that position.”
Also returning are Michael Braswell and Steven Milam who made 124 starts in 2024. Johnson says both will get looks on the left side of the infield, something that couldn’t happen in the fall because Milam was recovering from a foot injury and then got sick.
A number of players won’t be able to crack the lineup defensively, but that leaves the designated hitter spot. Johnson mentioned Priester, Fry and freshman Ryan Costello along with Beck, Larson and Pearson.
“It’s been a good start since we’ve been back, kind of getting our pathway to success or what we believe success for this team is,” Johnson said. “We’ve had some challenges with the weather. We’re excited to get out there. Really looking forward to what’s to come.”
