2018 LSU Baseball Roster – Where We Are and How We Got There

The college baseball roster limits dictate that only 35 players can be on the active roster beginning in the Spring semester that the regular season starts. I will not get into how the 11.7 scholarships are divided over the 27 recipients, as there is almost no public information available on those splits. I will catalog the occurrences over the past year that have led to the current state of the roster from both the active player and recruit side of things. After each category I will state the impact on the 35 man roster that specific category of players had. We begin at 61/35.

I will begin with the players that have exhausted their eligibility. There is no chance these players could have returned for this upcoming season. We thank them for their contributions to the program over the past 2, 3, 4 or 5 years.

- Russell Reynolds
- Hunter Newman
- Jared Poche
- Kramer Robertson
- Colin Strall
- Cole Freeman
- Jordan Romero
- Bryce Adams

The players exhausted eligibility leaves us at 54/35.

The next group of players I will look at is a group of one: Alden Cartwright. Cartwright, a Senior from Baton Rouge, could have potentially asked for a medical redshirt and come back to pitch for the Tigers in 2018. He ultimately decided to retire from baseball and received his degree in May. Once again we thank him for his contribution to the program over the past 4 years. The Advocate

Now we come to the players that have decided to forgo eligibility in order to pursue their professional career. Congrats to them as it is an amazing accomplishment. Their contributions will be missed but it will be fun to track their progress through professional baseball, hopefully all the way to the Major Leagues.

- Alex Lange (Cubs)
- Greg Deichmann (A's)
- Mike Papierski (Astros)
- Doug Norman (Reds)
- Hunter Kiel (White Sox)

Roster: 48/35

The last category of players from the 2017 roster I will discuss are those that have chosen to leave the program to pursue baseball elsewhere.

- Cole McKay Nola.com
- Blair Frederick The Advocate

Good luck to these players in their career. McKay will be going to Howard College, a JUCO in Texas. He will be a Redshirt Sophomore next season. Frederick is still undecided on his destination.

Roster: 46/35

The first group of recruits I will mention are the ones we won't see in an LSU uniform because they chose to pursue professional baseball instead of playing for the Tigers. Congrats to these players on fulfilling their lifelong dream. Oh what could have been…

- Nate Pearson – RHP – Central Florida JC – Toronto Blue Jays
- Andrew Bechtold – 3B – Chipola JC – Minnesota Twins
- Blayne Enlow – RHP – St Amant – Minnesota Twins
- Jacob Pearson – OF – West Monroe – LA Angels of Anaheim Orange County California America Western Hemisphere Earth

Roster: 42/35

The next group of recruits is guys that were committed to LSU at some point in the process but have decommitted. If I know their destination, I will list it.

- Johnny Ray – OF/P – Quincy, IL (Illinois St)
- Tanner Allen – 2B – Mobile, AL (Mississippi St)
- Miguel Reyes – RHP/3B – Lafayette, LA
- Brandon McCabe – RHP – Boynton Beach, FL (Palm Beach St JC)
- Stephen Keller – RHP – (Committed to a Texas JUCO but signed with the Reds after being drafted)

Roster: 37/35

That is where we stand today.

Returning players (by class)
Seniors:
Beau Jordan
Austin Bain - Texas Collegiate League - Acadiana Cane Cutters Stats
Nick Coomes - No Summer League, injury rehab: Tiger Rag

Juniors:
Bryce Jordan (Redshirt)
Caleb Gilbert
Antoine Duplantis - Cape Cod League - Harwich Mariners Stats
Chris Reid - Prospect League - Kokomo Jackrabbits Stats
Brennan Breaux

Sophomores:
Nick Bush (Redshirt) - Northwoods League - St Cloud Rox Stats
Todd Peterson
Zack Hess - Cape Cod League - Bourne Braves Stats
Will Reese - Northwoods League - St Cloud Rox Stats
Matthew Beck - Cape Cod League - Brewster Whitecaps Stats
Mason Templet - Prospect League - Danville Dans Stats
Rankin Woley
Eric Walker
Jake Slaughter
Josh Smith - Cape Cod League - Harwich Mariners Stats
Zach Watson

Newcomers (by class)
Juniors:
Hunter Feduccia – C - Northwoods League - Rockford Rivets Stats
Cameron Sanders – RHP
Taylor Petersen – LHP
Brandt Broussard – IF
Brandon Nowak – LHP
Clay Moffitt – RHP

Freshmen:
Nick Storz – RHP/DH
Daniel Cabrera – OF
Nick Webre – Util
Mason Doolittle – C
Hal Hughes – IF
Trent Vietmeier – RHP
Devin Fontenot – RHP
Matt Schroer – RHP
John Kodros – LHP
Ma'Khail Hilliard – RHP
Braden Doughty – C
AJ Labas – RHP

I will continue to update this post as new information is made public.