By Hunt Palmer
LSU wrapped up a competitive fall over the weekend. Jay Johnson’s club worked for eight weeks, scrimmaging three to four times a week and traveling to face Samford and UL-Lafayette in marathon Sundays.
The players will head home for Thanksgiving this week. Next comes dead week and then final exams. By the time they return to campus in January, Opening Day will be about five weeks away.
Johnson met with the media Monday to recap the fall. I was able to make it out to see the team here and there. Here’s are my early thoughts on the 2025 squad.
For Starters
LSU enters the winter without a proven SEC commodity among its starting rotation pool. Johnson said Monday that about six guys will be stretched out a little bit in January and early February. They’ll try to find three weekend starters from that group.
Right now, I’m comfortable suggesting that Kade Anderson and Chase Shores likely lead that pack. Anderson dazzled much of the fall. He’s got the fastball approaching the mid-90s, and that breaking ball is very good. If he can be the pitcher he was in spots last year, he can be a front-end starter.
Shores is progressing. He still throws 97, and the slider was a big point of emphasis this fall. Because of that, I think his raw statistics weren’t as good. But the only way to develop that slider is to throw it. He did a ton.
Those two guys went first in a lot of the scrimmages, and I would say they’re in good position to start on opening weekend. That said, there are 10 weeks for things to happen on that front.
Around the Horn
Even though Michael Braswell and Stevan Milam return, they aren’t cemented in their middle infield positions. Johnson got a look at Milam, Braswell and Daniel Dickinson all over the infield. All three guys played second base, shortstop and third base at times, and I think the staff is still evaluating all of that.
The first domino to fall there is shortstop. Whoever the staff determines is the best there will play there. The other spots will then shake out. It feels like those three are the leaders to play. Mikey Ryan, Tanner Reaves and David Hogg II had their moments, and I think they’ll have a chance to push for some early at bats.
Backstop Battle
Catcher was a huge question mark entering the fall. With all of LSU’s proven 2024 catching depth out the door, it was a whole new cast of characters fighting for time. In our fall baseball primer, I wrote that defense was going to be Johnson’s primary concern. He said Monday that he wanted to have more days where he didn’t notice the catchers than visa versa. He said that was the case.
Freshman Cade Arrambide really excelled defensively and offensively. Indiana State transfer Luis Hernandez took back to the position quite nicely after focusing mostly on offense as a Sycamore. Blaise Preister showed flashes of his big-time power at the plate, but I did see some issues defensively.
I think any notion that LSU was short on talent or options has probably been put to bed. How those reps are divvied up becomes the question. Right now, it’s too early to answer.
Center Stage
The most improved offensive player I saw I the fall was Jake Brown. Keep in mind, last year he hit .143 in league games. Now that his primary focus is truly on offense, that natural talent is starting to be refined. I saw some great opposite field line drive swings. He hit the ball out of the ballpark. He really looked good, and I think he’s got a chance to stick in centerfield.
I assumed Chris Stanfield would win that job, and he still might, but Brown is likely to make that tough.
Stanfield is a high floor option because he proved at Auburn that he can be a serviceable SEC centerfielder.
Some freshmen assimilate better than others in their first fall. Milam famously looked completely lost this time lats year. He may have been LSU’s best hitter in June. Well, no such struggles for Derek Curiel. He started hitting the day they put helmets on. That was always his best tool. He’s an above average runner for a corner player and probably a tick below that as a centerfielder. He hasn’t grown into his power yet. He’s a line drive hitter right now, and that was obvious. Curiel will get February at bats.
Ashton Larson, Josh Pearson, Ethan Frey, Dalton Beck and others will toss their hats in the ring at the corner outfield spots, but I like LSU’s situation in centerfield exiting fall.
Shut It Down
Johnson talked Monday about having elite pitching at the end of games. Obviously, Griffin Herring signed professionally with the Yankees over the summer. He put teams in a choke hold last year when he entered whether that was in the seventh or ninth.
Johnson saw that as well as the upper tier teams in the SEC deploying a closer for multiple innings, and he may look for that model again.
The guy I see as that option? Conner Ware.
The junior college transfer was brilliant almost every time out over eight weeks. He’s got a fastball in the low to mid-90s. His breaking ball is exceptional. He doesn’t throw that cutter like Herring, but there are some comparisons between the two from their build to their mechanics to their velocity.
Gavin Guidry has proven to be a guy LSU can lean on in big spots, too. Pair him with Ware for a little righty-lefty combo like Texas A&M had last year with Chris Cortez and Evan Aschenbeck. It’s a good recipe.
LSU will return to campus for the spring semester on January 13. The season opens February 14.
