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 second base.
WHO’S GONE: Ben Nippolt (Graduation), Austen Roellig (Transfer: Utah)
WHO’S BACK: Steven Milam
WHO’S NEW: Daniel Dickinson (Transfer: Utah Valley), Tanner Reaves (Transfer: Blinn College)
Who started the opener at second base last year? Anyone? Josh Pearson, of course. Milam started the second game of the season, went 1-for-1 with a RBI and three walks, and he would start 59 of the 66 games LSU played.
Milam has been moved over to the left side of the infield. That exact position is yet to be determined, and Dickinson has slotted in at second base where the staff is hopeful he can reproduce some of the monster numbers he authored at Utah Valley.
In two years, he hit .369 with 27 home runs. He stole 32 bases in 2024 alone and earned First-
Team All-WAC honors. Baseball America tabbed him the No. 2 player in the portal.
Dickinson looks the part. He’s 6-foot, 200 lbs. It’s obvious he can run. And it’s obvious he can hit the ball out of the ballpark against WAC pitching. The adjustment to the best level in college baseball is what is left to see.
He played 24 games on Cape Cod last year and struggled a little bit. He hit just .205 with two doubles, a triple and no homers. The Cape Cod League is very much a pitcher’s league, but those numbers aren’t great, obviously. Dickinson was better in the fall but certainly didn’t knock the cover off the ball.
The bet here, and it’s a bet the LSU staff and just about everyone who follows college baseball and scouting are willing to take, is that Dickinson’s tools eventually assimilate to the higher level of baseball, and he becomes an All-SEC type player.
Heck, D1 Baseball tabbed Dickinson a pre-season All-American.
Reaves is an interesting insurance option. In two seasons at Blinn College, Reaves hit .398 with 28 homers, 28 doubles and an eye-popping 142 runs driven in. He’s a left-handed bat with some serious thump as far as second base goes.
Sunday afternoon he launched a home run over the wall in right-center field to show it off.
Reaves can play second or third and could move over to first in a pinch, too. He doesn’t look physically imposing, but the bat speed plays up from his listed weight.
Of course, this is a step up for Reaves, too being that all of his production is at the JUCO level.
HUNT’S TAKE: The ceiling on Dickinson is really high. I’m just going to need to see he production once the season cranks up. And look, this is coming from the guy who questioned Paul Skenes after the fall because his Air Force numbers were good, not great, and he gave up a homer to Pearson the first time I saw him.
Hopefully Dickinson is a middle-of-the-order bat with 18 homers and 30 steals. That’s what lots of scouts believe. And everything I’m told from inside the program is that this guy is an absolute grinder. I’m going to pump the brakes on just assuming Dickinson breaks out in a major way.
I’m also not ruling out Reaves as a possible fourth infielder who brings a left-handed bat into the mix like Milam does. Maybe Reaves can get some at bats at designated hitter, as well.
Guys like Jared Jones, Michael Braswell, Josh Pearson and Ashton Larson probably are what they are. Jones isn’t going to shrink to 9 homers or hit .386. Braswell isn’t going to cash 17 homers, but he’s going to get on base and make the routine plays. Pearson’s a .270 hitter with a slow heartbeat. Larson is going to make contact but isn’t going to steal 28 bases or hit 17 home runs.
Dickinson feels like the guy with the most variance between his high-end potential and busting as a guy who couldn’t take the step up.
If he’s an All-American, LSU is probably one of the best lineups in the country. If he struggles to replicate his mid-major production from Utah Valley, can Reaves or someone else pick up the slack?
LSU has banked on high-major portal talent the last three years. Tommy White, Braswell, Luke Holman, Thatcher Hurd, Gage Jump, Jacob Berry and Riley Cooper are all guys who had played at the top levels of college baseball. This year, LSU is betting on massively productive players from lower levels.
Anthony Eyanson, Jacob Mayers, Luis Hernandez, Blaise Priester and Zac Cowan are examples, but Dickinson could be the most important.
The results of that group will likely tell the tale of this team.
NEXT UP: Shortstop
