Jay Johnson shares encouraging injury update on LSU pitcher Chase Shores

LSU pitcher Chase Shores missed the entire 2024 college baseball season after undergoing Tommy John surgery on his throwing arm in the middle of his true freshman season.

Shores was seen as one of the top freshmen in the country and was rated as the No. 1 prospect from Texas in the Class of 2022. He made four starts for the Tigers during the 2023 season where he accumulated a 1.96 ERA across 18.1 innings pitched.

Then he tore his UCL against Tennessee in late March and he hasn’t been back on the mound since.

“Something unknown — it’s hard to talk about right now, because it brings back some of the pain of the Regional,” Johnson said during an appearance on Mik’d Up w/ Mikie Mahtook. “But had we beaten North Carolina and held on to that lead in the ninth inning, he would have been on the roster for the Super.

“It’s one of those things like everything happens for a reason. You know, you hear that all the time. Maybe that wasn’t supposed to happen or meant to be, but he has crushed it with his rehab, his throwing. He looks like a physical specimen right now. He’s already 6-foot-8 or whatever, but I mean, big arms, big body, in the weight room every single day. He’s on track.”

It’s unclear how large of a role that Shores would have played on a Super Regionals team after not pitching in a live game in over a year. However, the Tigers pitching staff could have used the additional arm down the stretch.

After all, Johnson believes Shores is one of his best game-changing talents on his roster. He commands respect on the mound.

“If you asked me what was the biggest adversity we had in the national championship season was probably the night that he went down,” Johnson said. “I mean, there’s 13,000 people there against Tennessee. He’s a true freshman he rips off his last pitch at 97 miles an hour for strike three. And then he comes [into the dugout] and says, ‘Hey, my arm doesn’t feel very good.’ And then you find out the next day he needs Tommy John surgery.”

The unfortunate outcome of a promising true freshman season for the Tigers’ pitcher kept Shores sidelined in 2024. Now healthy and ready to start for LSU out of the gates next season, Shores can put that behind him and focus on being the best version of himself on the mound. He’s a top 100 prospect in the 2025 MLB Draft, per D1 Baseball, which means there will be a lot of focus on him in Baton Rouge next season.