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Jay Johnson has new strategy to combat financial uphill battle of MLB Draft
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:12 am
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:12 am
LINK
quote:
On July 11-12, during the MLB Draft, 30 teams will be poised to take away his high school signees, and there isn’t much he can do about it.
LSU doesn’t have the money to compete.
“If it’s about money,” Johnson said to The Advocate, “we’re going to lose them.”
LSU isn’t broke, but it doesn’t have the financial might that most major league clubs will flex next month.
quote:
This is why Johnson won’t be using financial reward to lure his recruits. The pitch will instead be something different this year.
“We want the player that looks at it as it’s not pro over college or college over pro,” Johnson said. “I want the player who looks at it like, LSU’s the best place to start their journey to be a pro player.”
There’s a chance LSU won’t have a high school signee picked in the first round, but Johnson still expects to lose somewhere between six and eight players to MLB.
quote:
The bad news for LSU is that MLB teams have over $8 million more to spend on draftees this year than last. The good news is the draft probably won’t hurt the Tigers as much as it did a year ago, when they lost eight high school signees to MLB and saw their freshman class shrink to just nine players.
quote:
LSU has 24 high school signees this July, eight more than last year. Even if a chunk of those signees are picked and leave for pro ball, Johnson estimates that LSU will have around 13 freshmen heading into next season.
9
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:16 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
I’m not gonna look it up but I wonder how many other schools are recruiting against the MLB to this level?
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:17 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
quote:
LSU doesn’t have the money to compete.
“If it’s about money,” Johnson said to The Advocate, “we’re going to lose them.”
LSU isn’t broke, but it doesn’t have the financial might that most major league clubs will flex next month.
Neither does any other college program when it comes to the top guys. This is kinda weird pointing out LSU like this. It kinda implies other schools are able to compete with MLB teams.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:17 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
If we only lost 6 to the draft that would be a huge coup considering the class size and quality towards the top half.
13 of those 24 commits are ranked in the Top 200 for the 2026 draft on MLB.com
Even losing 8 honestly isnt bad at all
13 of those 24 commits are ranked in the Top 200 for the 2026 draft on MLB.com
Even losing 8 honestly isnt bad at all
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:18 am to pgaddxn
quote:
I’m not gonna look it up but I wonder how many other schools are recruiting against the MLB to this level?
Zero. Which is why it’s a weird article. Or at least that part of it is.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:20 am to thunderbird1100
quote:
If we only lost 6 to the draft that would be a huge coup considering the class size and quality towards the top half.
If we only lose 6, I don’t think we have the roster spots for the rest. Unless redshirts don’t count. And there’d be a lot of guys redshirting who likely didn’t want to.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:21 am to Hot Carl
quote:
Neither does any other college program when it comes to the top guys. This is kinda weird pointing out LSU like this. It kinda implies other schools are able to compete with MLB teams.
I think what he might be hinting at is we are spending our money in the portal this time around, not with high school kids. If they want to come to LSU because they want to be at LSU, then great, but we arent going throw $500k their way to come here vs. sign pro. We are obviously spending some money in the portal to get proven players and Jay probably doesnt want a situation he has to commit a ton of money to a high school kid who isnt 100% sure how much of a contributor they would be right away. Better to spend $500k of sure fire portal player than $500k to get a kid to sign with MLB but could never be a major contributor here either.
From what was said around the Schmidt situation, we gave him a pretty healthy deal to sign here over pro, it wasnt as much as his pro offer, but enough to make that decision to come here vs. go pro last year at minimum. I think he is hinting we simply arent going to be making those promises to incoming freshmen any more.
This post was edited on 6/15/26 at 10:23 am
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:23 am to Hot Carl
quote:
Neither does any other college program when it comes to the top guys.
Correct.
quote:
This is kinda weird pointing out LSU like this. It kinda implies other schools are able to compete with MLB teams.
I don't think it does. I think the purpose was to point out that you have to have something to offer other than simply money. And that you will always lose some to the MLB regardless.
In other words, I think this was more about letting fans know what the realities are and that LSU is doing things to deal with those realities.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:30 am to thunderbird1100
I think you are correct. Simply cannot commit those resources to freshman. Schmidt sort of did not live up to the hype year one. Hopefully he takes the next step in his career in '27.
The other side of this is with a freshman class that size, those guys have got to LOVE LSU, or they will be out the door. He has his infield solidified and pretty much the outfield with one slot remaining. This class has at least 4 quality OF freshman coming in.
The other side of this is with a freshman class that size, those guys have got to LOVE LSU, or they will be out the door. He has his infield solidified and pretty much the outfield with one slot remaining. This class has at least 4 quality OF freshman coming in.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:31 am to mdomingue
The strategy is "they can't possibly draft everyone".
They've over recruited for positions that we absolutely need to bring guys in at to buffer against draft losses. But also, it's foolish to think that we're not putting together financial packages for any of these guys.
Last year, when word got out that Landon Hodge was leaning toward going pro, even though he was rated lower than Serna, we went hard to make sure we got Serna to campus and he formally pulled his name out of the draft.
Similar things will happen with other position groups. We have 3 first basemen committed. We have 4 centerfielders committed. Recruiting in clusters and making sure you get a minimum of 1 guy to school is part of the strategy. You get more than 1, that's good too. But at least one.
We might get more infielders to campus than we would have previously thought, which is funny considering we've already nerfed any early playing time opportunities there.
They've over recruited for positions that we absolutely need to bring guys in at to buffer against draft losses. But also, it's foolish to think that we're not putting together financial packages for any of these guys.
Last year, when word got out that Landon Hodge was leaning toward going pro, even though he was rated lower than Serna, we went hard to make sure we got Serna to campus and he formally pulled his name out of the draft.
Similar things will happen with other position groups. We have 3 first basemen committed. We have 4 centerfielders committed. Recruiting in clusters and making sure you get a minimum of 1 guy to school is part of the strategy. You get more than 1, that's good too. But at least one.
We might get more infielders to campus than we would have previously thought, which is funny considering we've already nerfed any early playing time opportunities there.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:33 am to Major Dutch Schaefer
quote:
LSU doesn’t have the money to compete.
quote:
LSU isn’t broke, but it doesn’t have the financial might that most major league clubs will flex next month.
This has been the case forever. I didn't read the entire article, but it's pretty dumb to feel the need to make this point as if it's newsworthy.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:44 am to moneyg
quote:
This has been the case forever. I didn't read the entire article, but it's pretty dumb to feel the need to make this point as if it's newsworthy.
Right. The only think NIL has changed is that it can possibly increase the MLB ask for the guys already seriously considering going to school.
If a guy values the college experience at $2MM, any NIL on top of that just makes him a little more difficult to sign for MLB clubs. No one thinks we're matching offers dollar for dollar. But if we can bump the number from 2 to 2.2, while it may not seem material it can be when MLB clubs are trying to negotiate with 30 guys at the same time. It's enough to just get them to move on to the next guy.
But it all starts with a guy wanting to actually be on campus in the first place.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 10:54 am to Hot Carl
quote:
If we only lose 6, I don’t think we have the roster spots for the rest. Unless redshirts don’t count. And there’d be a lot of guys redshirting who likely didn’t want to.
The way you have to manage a roster effectively is overrecruit, simply put. With the first portal window open in June, you see how many guys are leaving then, but you still have no idea how many guys you are ultimately losing to the draft from your current team and high school/JUCO class which is in July.
We end up over the limit almost every fall, and a few guys fall out one way (JUCO) or another (fall/winter transfer portal window). If we end up 8 guys over the limit, so be it, tough conversations will have to be had in November after fall practice about where they fall on the team at that time. I'd rather do it this way than hit right at or even below the limit when we could have been having 40+ on campus guys to evaluate vs. 35 or something in the fall.
This post was edited on 6/15/26 at 10:56 am
Posted on 6/15/26 at 11:00 am to thunderbird1100
Pre-draft, we're currently at 54/34ish.
Spots are already tight and we're looking to add more arms.
We probably have some lingering DSAs that will allow us to stay over the 34, but who knows how many.
I keep saying it will be nice when the roster rules clear up and things are more transparent and cut and dry. We're like 6 years in on the weirdness and there only seems to be more coming.
Spots are already tight and we're looking to add more arms.
We probably have some lingering DSAs that will allow us to stay over the 34, but who knows how many.
I keep saying it will be nice when the roster rules clear up and things are more transparent and cut and dry. We're like 6 years in on the weirdness and there only seems to be more coming.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 11:03 am to ProjectP2294
Yeah a guy like Yamin is probably only able to stick around because he might not count against the 34 and such
It's super confusing to know one way or another. Either way, no doubt we're going to be quite a bit over the limit after the draft if Jay expect to only lose 8 from our 26 (including 2 JUCO pitchers) size class.
Ultimately in the end just going to have to be more than a handful of tough convos with current players and some recruits coming in. Later this summer and after fall practice.
It's super confusing to know one way or another. Either way, no doubt we're going to be quite a bit over the limit after the draft if Jay expect to only lose 8 from our 26 (including 2 JUCO pitchers) size class.
Ultimately in the end just going to have to be more than a handful of tough convos with current players and some recruits coming in. Later this summer and after fall practice.
This post was edited on 6/15/26 at 11:05 am
Posted on 6/15/26 at 11:07 am to thunderbird1100
quote:
We end up over the limit almost every fall, and a few guys fall out one way (JUCO) or another (fall/winter transfer portal window). If we end up 8 guys over the limit, so be it, tough conversations will have to be had in November after fall practice about where they fall on the team at that time. I'd rather do it this way than hit right at or even below the limit when we could have been having 40+ on campus guys to evaluate vs. 35 or something in the fall.
Oh, I get all that. It’s the right way to do it. I was just saying losing only 6 is pretty ambitious.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 11:08 am to thunderbird1100
quote:
(including 2 JUCO pitchers)
I could see a scenario where neither JUCO pitcher is on LSU's campus next season. I think Hayden Morris will go pro. He still has a chance to sign with the Yankees from last year's draft. And Osbolt could go back to Walters St for another year.
I'm not all that enamored with Morris. A ton of walks and overall just took a big step back from his freshman year. With limited time to fix control issues (part of the conversation from another thread), he's a guy that's probably better off taking a $125K and heading to Florida or Arizona.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 11:14 am to ProjectP2294
The 34 cap is fricking retarded.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 11:19 am to ell_13
quote:
The 34 cap is fricking retarded.
Especially when WBB gets like 15.
I don't think it needs to be 40, but 36 or 37 is reasonable. Especially if you're going to start giving everyone 5 years of eligibility.
Posted on 6/15/26 at 11:22 am to ProjectP2294
We are getting beyond a cap requirement at all. Players aren’t forced into staying at one place for 3 years anymore. Transfer and NIL process removes the need for it imo.
ETA: the days of skip hoarding 40+ players are over
ETA: the days of skip hoarding 40+ players are over
This post was edited on 6/15/26 at 11:23 am
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