BATON ROUGE, La. – Four former LSU players have an opportunity to participate in the 2024 Major League Baseball Playoffs that begin on Tuesday.
The former Tigers who are on active MLB playoff rosters are third baseman Alex Bregman of the Houston Astros and right-handed pitcher Aaron Nola of the Philadelphia Phillies, while infielder DJ LeMahieu of the New York Yankees and catcher Hunter Feduccia of the Los Angeles Dodgers are on their teams’ 40-man rosters and could be activated during the postseason.
A total of 43 former Tigers have been a part of MLB playoff teams since 1990, and 14 former LSU players have been members of World Series Championship teams in that span, including Bregman, who claimed World Series rings with the Astros in 2017 and in 2022.
Bregman and the Astros will open a best-of-three American League Wild Card Series against the Detroit Tigers at 1:30 p.m. CT Tuesday in Houston.
The Phillies, Yankees and Dodgers will begin playoff action on Saturday in the best-of-seven Divisional Series, after the Wild Card Series winners have been determined.
A doubleheader on Monday in Atlanta between the Atlanta Braves and New York Mets will conclude the regular season and determine the final two NL Wild Card teams. The NL West champion Dodgers would meet the Braves, Mets, or San Diego Padres in an NLDS beginning on Saturday, while the Phillies – champions of the NL East – would open an NLDS matchup on Saturday with the Mets, Milwaukee Brewers or Arizona Diamondbacks.
The AL East champion Yankees will face either the Kansas City Royals or Baltimore Orioles in an ALDS starting on Saturday.
Nola and Feduccia are Louisiana natives, hailing from Baton Rouge and Lake Charles, respectively. LeMahieu is a native of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Bregman is a product of Albuquerque, N.M.
Bregman, along with being a two-time World Series champion and four-time AL pennant winner, is a two-time All-Star and the 2018 All-Star Game MVP. He batted .260 during the 2024 regular season for Houston with 30 doubles, two triples, 26 homers, 75 RBI and 79 runs scored.
Bregman is in his ninth season with the Astros, who selected him as the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft.
Nola, a 2018 NL All-Star, helped lead Philadelphia to the National League pennant in 2022, and this season he has recorded a 14-8 mark and a 3.57 ERA in 199.1 innings with 197 strikeouts.
In 2022, he registered the most strikeouts (235) with fewer than 30 walks (29) in Major League Baseball History. Nola, the Phillies’ first-round draft choice in 2014, is in his 10th MLB season in Philadelphia.
LeMahieu, who is in his 14th Major League season and sixth with the Yankees, batted .204 in the 2024 regular season with five doubles, two homers, 26 RBI and 19 runs scored. A three-time All-Star, a four-time Gold Glove Award recipient and a two-time winner of the Silver Slugger Award, LeMahieu captured the MLB and American League batting titles in 2020.
LeMahieu became the first player in modern Major League history to win a batting title in each league, as he also claimed the 2016 MLB and National League batting titles while playing for the Colorado Rockies. He was the second-round selection of the Chicago Cubs in the 2009 MLB Draft.
Feduccia, the Dodgers’ 12th-round draft choice in 2018, made his MLB debut in July and appeared in five games during the regular season. He had four hits in 12 at-bats with one RBI and two runs.
Feduccia hit .295 this season at Triple-A Oklahoma City with a .420 on-base percentage and .451 slugging percentage in 64 games.
***LSU Athletics Press Release
