BATON ROUGE – Let’s get the obvious part out of the way first: This may be the toughest season to project what LSU baseball’s starting lineup and rotation could look like for the 2025 college baseball season.
All credit for that goes to LSU coach Jay Johnson and his staff for how they restocked and reloaded talent with viable options at a number of positions and roles to fill out one of the sports most versatile rosters.
Heading into 2025, LSU is a consensus top-3 team, but it has some questions. As Johnson said, “We’re not a young team, but we’re a new team.” The Tigers have 12 players back that played in at least one game for them last season.
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With Opening Day two weeks away, with LSU set to face Purdue-Fort Wayne inside Alex Box Stadium on Feb. 14 at 2 p.m., let’s project what Johnson’s first lineup card and the pitching rotation might could look like.
Jay Johnson shuffles up LSU baseball infield positional players
In the leadup to this season, Johnson has said that sophomore Steven Milam will move from second base to the left side of the infield. The question is which spot will he land? Senior Michael Braswell returns from last season and he handled duties at shortstop during 2024, but worked some at third over the offseason.
I think Milam, however, ends up landing at third base. Milam is LSU’s best defender and while most conventional wisdom is you play your best defender at shortstop, Johnson has been complimentary how Braswell closed last season defensively. To me, Braswell would do well with the stability.
That leaves second base open, and I believe the clear heir to that position is Utah Valley transfer Daniel Dickinson.
New look LSU baseball starting rotation
Gage Jump, Luke Holman and Griffin Herring are all gone to professional baseball. After the turnover, who starts for the Tigers? Who has emerged?
There’s no simple answer here as Johnson has raved about how the staff has worked and looked over the fall and offseason. Eight guys are vying for each of the starting roles and there’s a chance the rotation changes multiple times.
But my projection is junior left-hander Connor Ware gets the ball first for LSU and starts Friday nights. Ware is a top-70 MLB Draft prospects and Johnson said “he was our best pitcher during the fall.”
Right-hander Chase Shores, back and full healthy off of Tommy John surgery after missing all of 2024, works his way into the starting rotation and fits in on Saturdays, middle game of series. After him, I think Kade Anderson, the sophomore lefty, gets the nod on the bump. Anderson started nine games for LSU last season, going 4-2 and finished with a 3.99 ERA, 59 strikeouts in 38⅓ innings.
Set-up and closer will be intriguing role battles to watch early in the season. I wouldn’t be shocked if Anthony Eyanson, the San Diego transfer, ends up filling that role. He’s too good to not have a defined role. But Gavin Guidry has loads of experience pitching on the backend of games, he could easily fit there.
Another name to watch is freshman Casan Evans, who has impressed the LSU staff since joining the team and been clocked at 99 mph with his fastball.
LSU baseball starting lineup projections for 2025
- Steven Milam, Soph., 3B
- Ashton Larson, Soph. DH
- Daniel Dickinson, Jr., 2B
- Jared Jones, Jr. 1B
- Blaise Priester, Jr., C
- Josh Pearson, Sr. LF
- Michael Braswell, Sr., SS
- Jake Brown, Soph., RF
- Chris Stanfield, Jr., CF
LSU baseball starting rotation, bullpen projections for 2025
Friday: Connor Ware (LHP), Jr.
Saturday: Chase Shores, (RHP), Jr.
Sunday: Kade Anderson (LHP), Soph.
Set-up: Gavin Guidry (RHP), Jr.
Closer: Anthony Eyanson (RHP), Jr.
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
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