Jim Schlossnagle reveals how close Texas A&M is to finalizing 2024 roster

Texas A&M head baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle has guided the Aggies to back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths the past two seasons, including an appearance at the 2022 College World Series. The Aggies were bounced by the Stanford Cardinal in the Stanford Regional of the 2023 NCAA Tournament. Since the end of the season, Texas A&M has been busy adding a number of pieces via the transfer portal and the Aggies still have a bit more work to do before finalizing their roster for the 2024 campaign.

Recently, Schlossnagle took some time to speak with the media about how far he is from finishing up his roster for next season.

“Yes. So, we still have a couple of guys. We have a grad transfer that was drafted, so we need to find out what he’s gonna do and we’ll hopefully find that out today. We may visit a few extra guys here in the next week depending on who they are. Depending on what our needs are. But, I think we’re getting closer and closer to knowing exactly what our roster is. And then go into the fall and give everybody a chance to make the team,” Schlossnagle said.

Not only has the Aggies’ roster been changing this offseason, but they also recently hired a new pitching coach, Max Weiner. For more on that below, check out this article from On3’s Steve Samra.

Schlossnagle is excited about his new pitching coach

Jim Schlossnagle left no stone unturned in his hiring of Texas A&M‘s new pitching coach Max Weiner.

Speaking with the media after making it official, Schlossnagle elaborated on how excited he is for Weiner to join the Aggies, and how it’s helping Texas A&M get back on track this offseason.

“Just super exciting time you know, since we finished playing at Stanford, it’s been pretty unsettled around here, which none of us liked, but that’s part of transition, when somebody makes the decision to go somewhere else. And then certainly, you know, this time of the year your roster is in a lot of transition, trying to figure out what that is relative to the Major League (Baseball) Draft, the transfer portal, what your own current players want to do,” explained Schlossnagle. “So yeah, we feel good about the last you know, 48 hours, of getting Coach Max [Weiner] on board.

“Getting him to work. He’s been great, with — came down in his interview, didn’t check a bag. Just a carry on. Has been hanging out here ever since. So, or not just hanging out, he’s been working. … It’s been exciting. … So we’re slowly getting this thing back on steady water.”

Continuing, Schlossnagle explained what drew him to Weiner among many other candidates, as Texas A&M had their pick of the litter over the offseason.

“I just wanted to do a comprehensive search, which I did. … So just kind of went all across the country,” explained the Texas A&M leader. “I talked to everybody, from Major League GMs to pitching coaches in the big leagues. Obviously the interest in the job was at a very, very high level. College head coaches, college assistant coaches. Some of the very best and brightest people in all of baseball. It’s easy to hire people that don’t have a job, or don’t have as good of a job. It’s really hard to hire somebody that has a great job. You have to go through some processes, and they have to go through a process. So it just because super clear, in a perfect world, what I was looking for. … Someone young, with some energy, who had a great knowledge of kind of the new age pitching style, the science behind it. But also, we all know that those things are great in a bullpen, they’re great in a lab, but you’ve still got to go and win a game. You’ve still got to manage a roster in-game. You’ve still got to call pitches. You’ve still got to read hitters. You’ve got to play real baseball.

“So, as I went throughout all of professional baseball mainly, looking for that, one name kept coming to the top. He’s had opportunities prior to this in college baseball. … One thing that really stood out is he wanted to be a college coach. It wasn’t just someone who, ‘I want to dabble in that maybe, or maybe I want to investigate that,’ the one thing he said to me was, ‘My goal my entire career was to be a college pitching coach.’ So that was super exciting, and then everything’s been great to this point. So, looking forward to building that relationship.”

On3’s Steve Samra also contributed to this article.