Georgia Baseball, Wes Johnson gear up for 2024 Opening Day

ATHENS, Ga. — Baseball season is here, and there’s certainly excitement in the air as the Wes Johnson era begins at Georgia. The Bulldogs’ squad features 28 newcomers (18 transfers, 10 true freshmen), and with that, there’s uncertainty about what to expect.

“You know, I’m always ready,” Johnson told reporters in his preseason press availability. “With Opening Day around the corner, you’re excited for your players. We’ve put in all of our work as coaches to develop them. You obviously continue to develop throughout the season, but these guys are ready to see somebody else in another uniform. We’re tired of playing each other. Excited, guys are ready to go. It’ll be a fun day on Friday.”

Johnson joked that he won’t need a roster to know all the new faces to the program. After all, he is the one that recruited them – and he’s a newcomer too. However, fans absolutely will need that help, and it should come in handy as Johnson plans for a large number of individuals to see the field.

“You could see every position player on our roster in there, and/or start, at some point depending on what they do. I don’t know what they’re going to do just yet. I’ve got some ideas. They’ve got a couple of lefties they could start, a couple of righties, but I really like the way we’re able to match up left vs. right certain guys,” Johnson said, speaking about the lineup. “I alluded to it today, if they throw a lefty at us, we could run nine right-handed hitters out there, and if they throw a good righty at us, we can run as many as six lefties out there. So with that being said, you’re doing the math right there, that could potentially be 15 guys playing this weekend.”

Making matters even harder in figuring out the lineup is the fact that so many of Georgia’s players can play multiple positions. Star redshirt sophomore Charlie Condon is just one of the examples: expected to line up at first base, third base, all over the outfield and potentially even at shortstop at some point this season. Others like Corey Collins, Logan Jordan and Lukas Farris also fit that hybrid mold. The infield should consist of Slate Alford, Kolby Branch, Paul Toetz and Sebastian Murillo in some capacity – plus potentially exciting freshman Tre Phelps – while the outfield is filled with options of where to put players including Dillon Carter, Clayton Chadwick, Dylan Goldstein, John Marant and Josh Stinson, among others. Fernando Gonzalez returns at catcher, joined by Henry Hunter, Collins and Jordan.

Furthermore, there’s tons of experience on the roster – it just hasn’t played together. Anybody and everybody that the Bulldogs brought in out of the transfer portal was successful at their last stop, meaning that finding the right group will result in talent left on the bench, able to help when substitutions are necessary.

On the mound, that same uncertainty exists. Johnson pointed out the fact that only four pitchers on Georgia’s roster have thrown more than 5.0 innings in a Division I game. He doesn’t want to pigeonhole anybody into a role and knows that relief pitchers are going to be important for this team as the starters learn how to extend things out.

“I don’t want to make the journey too long for them right out of the gate. They’re going to have to build into that journey. When they do and they show me that they can do it, we’ll continue to extend them,” Johnson said. “But that’s the other side of it: I want them to go out and get comfortable. We’re going to push them, push some of them, but I can’t make that journey too long. We’re going to have to mix and match some.”

“I’ve almost made up my mind, but I want to continue to look,” he added on the starting rotation for the weekend. “I think everybody gets so caught up in what the opening rotation and opening weekend. You get so caught up in looking at the first three games that you forget that we’ve got a really good Georgia State team that’s offensive that we play Tuesday and then you’ve got five games the next week. So when you start to look at this, you’re not actually just planning to weekend but you’re planning hopefully what’s happening the first three weeks. I’m getting close on that, but it’ll be a lot of Charlie Goldstein somewhere, a lot of Leighton Finley, Christian Mracna, Brian Zeldin, Kolten Smith, Jarvis Evans. Those guys are all throwing the ball really well right now. Brandt Pancer is throwing the ball really well. I think a young man that’s kind of a sleeper right now, he’s been here but is throwing the ball well and I’m excited to see him in a real game, Max DeJong. He had a phenomenal early spring with us in the scrimmages, attacked the strike zone. I’m anxious to see him. That’s just to name a few.”

Having spent last season with the national champions at LSU, Johnson knows what good baseball looks like. He understands the potential that there is at Georgia in such a talent-filled state, but also – whether he says it or not – gets the fact that the Bulldogs have missed the NCAA Tournament two of the last three seasons and have not advanced out of a regional since 2008. It’s easier to rebuild and reload in today’s world with the transfer portal – and that’s what he hopes has happened – but it could take time to truly get a sense for what the 2024 team looks like.

“We feel really good about our work in the offseason. This league is tough, and I told our guys, everybody wants to talk about failure but you have to deal with success too at times. I’ve seen good teams, or teams that are good on paper, have some success and actually struggle with that,” Johnson said. “I think it’s going to be a balance for our guys. People ask how close, and that’s a tough question for me. No matter where we are, you’ve got to see how your team deals with success as well as failure and then you’ve got to make those adjustments, coach them and if you can get on track, anything is possible in this league.”

First pitch for Friday’s game against UNC-Asheville is set for 3:00 p.m. ET at Foley Field. Saturday and Sunday games will follow at 3:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. respectively, all three airing on SEC Network+.