Baseball America tabs LSU No. 1 in Way Too Early 2025 Rankings
LSU has completely revamped and reloaded its roster for the 2025 season as Jay Johnson and his staff have relentlessly worked the transfer portal as well as pushed to get top prospects on campus. That hard work has paid off as Baseball America ranked the Tigers as the No. 1 team in it’s Way Too Early 2025 rankings on Wednesday morning.
LSU comes off of a disappointing season, losing in the region final to North Carolina and lost a handful of top 100 picks in the MLB Draft, but a new roster does not mean the Tigers are void of talent. In fact, LSU has a case to be one of the most talented teams in America.
Here is Baseball America’s writeup on LSU. Check out the full rankings here.
“The Tigers this spring had to really hustle down the stretch to secure an NCAA Tournament berth, but by the time the season ended, they were playing just about as well as anyone. Coach Jay Johnson took some lessons from that experience and has relentlessly hit the recruiting trail this summer, landing an exceptional haul of both traditional recruits and transfers.
LSU has a lot to replace. All-American slugger Tommy White is gone, as is the 1-2 punch in the rotation of Gage Jump and Luke Holman, plus relief ace Griffin Herring. The Tigers return six players from their starting lineup at the end of the season, including shortstop Michael Braswell, first baseman Jared Jones and Freshman All-American Steven Milam. Righthander Chase Shores, a projected first-round pick, should be healthy after missing 2024 due to Tommy John surgery. The Tigers also landed elite portal commitments from second baseman Daniel Dickinson (Utah Valley) and righthander Anthony Eyanson—who both played for Team USA—and a slew of others, including outfielder Chris Stanfield (Auburn) and righthander Zac Cowan (Wofford). William Schmidt, the top prep righthander in the draft class, opted to come to school, giving LSU the highest ranked pitcher to make it to campus since Jack Leiter.
LSU has as much pure talent as anyone. Now it will be up to Johnson to manage that roster, and he’s proven to be very adept at that part of the job over the last two years.”
Johnson was quick to move onto the 2025 season after the quick departure in the postseason, but now has a roster that can compete with anyone in the country. He laid out the plan days after the loss to North Carolina.
“When looking at the players that have committed to returning in 2025 you have some good pieces and great character,” Johnson said. “I’m comfortable with them as a foundation. Then, we have to go get some players. We had 13 players drafted last year and we’ll have between 5 and 11 players drafted this year and that’s a lot of turnover the last two years. That’s what we’re also here to do – develop guys for professional baseball. That’s led to a hustle of what we need to do to put our 2025 roster where it needs to be. It will look different by design and I’m very excited about that. We’ve had some good interactions from on campus visits and being on the road the past couple of days and we’ll continue that up to the first day of school.”
