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 shortstop.
WHO’S GONE: Ryan Kucherak (Transfer: Northwestern)
WHO’S BACK: Michael Braswell, Steven Milam
WHO’S NEW: Mikey Ryan (Freshman), David Hogg (Freshman)
By the end of the 2024 season, Michael Braswell played great as LSU’s shortstop. It took some time, though. Braswell led the SEC in errors as of April 4. He’d made nine. To that point, 30 games, he only had six extra base hits. He finished the season with just two errors in the final 26 games, and he really turned things up offensively. Braswell finished the year with a .411 on base percentage and 19 extra base hits. For perspective, he posted 24 extra base hits in two seasons at South Carolina.
He was 16-for-42 in the SEC Tournament and Regional, that’s a .381 batting average, and he provided the walk off hit against his old team in South Carolina. Braswell made both All-Tournament teams.
Steven Milam wrestled the second base job away from a few different early-season options like Josh Pearson. He enjoyed an excellent rookie season, finishing with a .326 batting average and eight homers. He hit five of those long balls in the last 15 games of the season while he was playing with a small stress fracture in his foot.
Milam wasn’t able to do much in the summer while recovering, and he was limited in the fall due to illness that kept him out over a week. That didn’t allow him enough reps to truly win the shortstop battle.
Jay Johnson is going to put his best infielder at shortstop. He’s said that repeatedly.
Braswell proved he could play the position once he settled down in mid-April. Milam is quicker and probably has better hands. Right now, both of them are splitting the reps at shortstop while the other plays third base.
I don’t expect this to be a back-and-forth situation once the season begins. I think LSU will settle on a shortstop on Opening Day and move the other guy to third.
Waiting in the wings are a pair of really talented freshmen.
Mikey Ryan was a draft risk coming out of Rummel in New Orleans. He’s a slick fielder who hits a lot of line drives. David Hogg is a really good athlete with more size than Ryan. He’s 6-foot-2 and nearly 200 lbs.
Both of those guys can defend at all three infield spots, it’s just a matter of how the bats come along.
HUNT’S TAKE: I think Johnson has been angling to put Milam at shortstop since last summer. And that how I think this starts unless Milam kicks the ball all over the yard the next two weeks. Braswell is a steady insurance policy in that event.
Neither option is ideal. Braswell has limited range and quickness with average arm. Milam moves much more quickly but doesn’t have a rocket arm. The routine plays aren’t a concern for either arm, but that cannon that Jordan Thompson had really helps when you’re moving into the hole or need to fire one on the run.
What Johnson is going to want is all the routine plays made.
Offensively, I expect Milam to be a .350, 10 homer guy. He’s got such a short, quick swing from both sides of the plate, and you saw the ball jump off his bat when the weather warmed up. I’d put him either at the top of the lineup or right in front of Jared Jones and let him work.
Braswell really did take the next step offensively last year after two pedestrian years at South Carolina. He’s going to be a high on base guy again, and I’d like to see him down in the nine hole to turn the lineup over.
I don’t think Ryan or Hogg figure in this year. It’ll be a huge summer for those guys as Braswell and Daniel Dickinson move on which will open two infield spots.
In summary, Milam and Braswell are good offensive players. I see them as second basemen on a perfect roster, but Braswell proved he could play shortstop, and the staff really believes Milam can do it.
These guys will be leaders on the team both on the field and off.
NEXT UP: Third Base
