I have thoughts on what wound up being discussed here, but back to OP’s thread title, I’m curious about back end of the roster. If Mitchell is the only guy we lose from the class, Jay is going to have to have some hard conversations with guys coming up. I’m sure he was expecting the draft to take at least 2 or 3 more guys from the incoming class or our draft-eligible JRs.

I know Project doesn’t like this talked in his threads, but maybe this one’s safe. And I certainly mean no disrespect to any of the guys I’m about to name. But isn’t tomorrow (July 13th) the last day to enter the portal? He’s got to be talking to guys like Hellmers, Dutton, and even Collins about maybe putting their names in and looking around? Not that he’s cutting them or giving up on them, just that with the numbers crunch, they’re not guaranteed a spot on the roster, much less a role that actually pitches.

I also think he probably expected Christian Little to get drafted earlier than he did. On Off the Bench, he mentioned that all the current guys who got drafted should leave as “no-brainers,” except Little and Coleman who were drafted toward the back end. He said they would have decisions to make and that it may take a while to know what they’ll be. I think the new rule is they have until July 25th this year? He may have been trying to help them/their agents negotiate, but it sounded 50/50 (ish) they’d be back.

I hate the idea of “processing,” especially in baseball with limited scholarships. I wish that once you signed, you were guaranteed a spot for 4 years if you wanted. But the reality is that along with those limited scholarships come limited roster spots and hard conversations. shite, he told Edwards in January that he had about 2 outings to show him something to even make the team this year. Some guys may stay through the fall and try to compete and take their chances on having to transfer between semesters. Regardless, there are going to be some returning SOs and JRs who aren’t on the roster come spring, simply because we just have more players than spots.