The Horns have good position talent, but the season could hinge on late contributions from the team’s power arms, many of them young.
Opening weekend for Texas Longhorns baseball under new head coach Jim Schlossnagle is finally here with buzz building around the program as it travels to Arlington for the Shriners Children’s College Showdown.
Texas starts the season against Louisville at 7 p.m. Central on Friday before facing Ole Miss at 7 p.m. Central on Saturday and Oklahoma State on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. Central. All three games will be televised on FloSports.tv.
Like any head coach, Schlossnagle wants his team to peak late in the season, which will have a heavily influence on how he uses his pitching staff and how much weight to put on the opening-weekend results.
As Schlossnagle noted in an interview previewing the season, the 2021 Longhorns lost all three games in Arlington before making a run in the College World Series. The context around those losses matter, of course, coming in the wake of Winter Storm Uri, but the larger point remains.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at a roster that features a core returning group of position players and a pitching staff that added power arms since Schlossnagle’s arrival, but needs to build strength and determine roles.
Catcher
The spine of every baseball team is up the middle and starts with the catcher — as Schlossnagle told the Austin American-Statesman, “there’s never been a good baseball team with a bad catcher.”
And Schlossnagle believes that preseason second-team All-SEC selection Rylan Galvan is a “really good catcher.” The 6’0, 215-pound junior emerged as the regular starter last season and is a good pitch stopper, but would surely like to do better than going 11-of-34 throwing out would-be base stealers last year. And the projection of Galvan as an All-SEC player requires a jump in the batter’s box, too — Galvan hit .287 with 14 doubles, eight home runs, and 37 RBI in 2024, but needs to make more frequent contact after seeing his slugging percentage jump from .405 as a freshman to .506 as a sophomore.
When Galvan needs a break, Texas can use senior Kimble Schuessler at the position in addition to freshman Cole Chamberlain, who wields a promising left-handed bat.
First base
Schlossnagle may choose to platoon the position based on matchups, switching between Schuessler and junior Jaquae Stewart, the left-handed option. Sophomore Casey Borba is also an option at both corners.
Schuessler was one of the breakout players for the Longhorns in 2024 after missing the 2023 season when he underwent experimental surgery to repair a “dead” left index finger. Capable of catching, playing first base, or even serving as the designated hitter, Schuessler batted .343 with 10 home runs last year as a contact hitter with some pop who can control the strike zone with 24 walks and just 30 strikeouts.
A transfer from Northwest Florida State, Stewart has more raw power after hitting 15 home runs with a .743 slugging percentage last year. He’s leaned down from a listed 245 pounds to 227 on this year’s roster, though Stewart’s total weight loss may be even more pronounced.
Borba went through growing pains as a freshman, hitting .256.
Second base
Schlossnagle added Southlake Carroll product Ethan Mendoza to compete for the starting job at second base after a successful season at Arizona State that saw the 5’10, 185-pounder post a .315 average with 35 runs scored, 11 doubles, three homers, and 24 RBI as a contact hitter who rarely drew walks or struck out.
Providing competition is junior Jayden Duplantier, battling for the first regular playing time in his career. If he’s going to get on the field, he’ll have to hit better than his .231 average over 47 career at bats and provide value on the base paths with his speed.
Shortstop
Junior Jalin Flores may not be a preseason All-SEC selection, but he’s still one of the most productive returning shortstops in the country after batting .340, leading the team in doubles (22), RBI (56) and hit by pitches (10) while tying for the team lead in home runs (18) and total bases (158).
The sensational season for Flores was strong enough that he had to turn down professional opportunities as a draft-eligible sophomore; his decision to return for a third season on the Forty Acres was one of the most signifiant of the offseason following Schlossnagle’s arrival in Austin.
If Flores can continue reducing his swing-and-miss rate like he did from his freshman to his sophomore seasons and show more control over the strike zone by taking more frequent walks, he’ll be a complete player at the plate and further bolster his MLB draft stock.
Third base
The prospect starter at third base is one of Schlossnagle’s guys — freshman Adrian Rodriguez, a Flower Mound product with positional versatility who flipped from Texas A&M. Rodriguez looks like an early better to out-achieve his ranking by Perfect Game as the No. 500 player nationally after hitting a double off the wall and a grand slam in a preseason scrimmage.
Borba looks like the backup to Rodriguez, who could also be in the mix at second base if Borba breaks out.
Outfield
In left field, sophomore Easton Winfield takes over for Porter Brown. The Louisiana-Monroe transfer was a priority target in the NCAA transfer portal after pacing the Warhawks in average (.332), runs (51), hits (68), extra-base hits (21), home runs (10), total bases (112), slugging (.546), and stolen bases (18), production that made him a top-10 impact transfer by D1 Baseball.
Sophomore Will Gasparino is the center fielder looking poised to turn some of his massive potential into more consistent production. The 6’6, 225-pounder flashed power with 12 home runs and 13 doubles last season, but struggled to make contact when his swing lengthened around his naturally long levers with a strikeout rate of 36.2 percent.
“He’s a completely different hitter than what he was even in the fall — he’s really finally bought into an approach, worked hard with Tulo and Nolan [Cain] trying to control the strike zone a little bit better because we know if he swings at the strikes and takes the balls, as long as he touches the ball, he’s one of those guys that when he hits it, he hits it really, really hard,” Schlossnagle said.
“The one correlation to having success as a hitter is just hitting the ball hard. The guys who hit the ball the hardest do the best, plain and simple, and so he hits the ball as hard as anybody on our team.”
Another player who hits the ball as hard as anyone on the team? That’s junior left fielder Max Belyeu, whose decision to remain in Austin rather than starting a bidding war in the portal was another huge win for Schlossnagle and his staff in the wake of the 6’2, 215-pounder earning Big 12 Player of the Year honors after hitting for a .329 average with 50 runs, 15 doubles, 18 home runs, and 53 RBI while leading the Horns in slugging percentage at .667.
The speed and defensive ability of sophomore Tommy Farmer has him positioned as the fourth outfielder, a difficult spot with the starters expected to play the majority of innings and Farmer coming off a freshman season in which he batted .200 with 10 strikeouts in 20 at bats.
Designated hitter
Look for Texas to use a variety of players in this role based on matchups with Schuessler, Stewart, Borba, and Chamberlain all possibilities. Since Schlossnagle told the Statesman that Chamberlain will play frequently, designated hitter may have the clearest path to that playing time unless the high school catcher factors more heavily into the infield rotation than expected.
Pitching
The team’s biggest question mark is the area that most needed improvement — fired head coach David Pierce took over as the pitching coach last season despite questionable high school recruiting efforts and even less ambition or capability in the NCAA transfer portal and was terminated in part because the pitching staff posted a 4.91 ERA that understated the group’s struggles in 2024.
Preseason Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Labarron Johnson struggled so much he fell out of the rotation and down MLB draft boards, leading to desperate toggling of the starting rotation. Two of those breakout starters, junior Max Grubbs and senior Ace Whitehead, may not contribute much this season after battling through more than 140 combined innings last year.
In contrast, Schlossnagle is publicly adamant about his desire to manage his staff physically — the best example is freshman left-hander Dylan Volantis, a legitimate MLB prospect who flipped late from USC. Volantis is already one of the team’s best pitchers, good enough to factor into the starting rotation immediately, but Schlossnagle is taking a cautious, long-term approach.
“If you’re just going to go on pure performance, there’s no question he deserves to be at the forefront of everything we’re doing. At the same time, I need him, I’ve got to pace him, because I don’t want him to get hurt. I need him to be strong when we need him to be strong and so sometimes what you do at the beginning is not what you do at the end,” Schlossnagle said on the Around the Horns podcast.
Consequently, the staff needs to define roles with senior Indiana State transfer Jared Spencer making his 12th career start on Friday in the season opener against Louisville and soft-tossing redshirt junior left-hander Luke Harrison set for the Saturday start.
Spencer has topped out at 98 miles per hour, but is more likely to sit in the low 90s as a starter with a sleeping slider that serves as his out pitch. Harrison is emblematic of the tension between throwing strikes at low velocity and the power arms pitching coach Max Weiner added that are either experienced, but less adept at throwing strikes, or simply young.
“We’re always going to default to the strike throwers — that’s what gives you the best chance. At the same time, sometimes, especially on this team, some of the guys that are the better strike throwers, the pure stuff is a little bit lighter than what the SEC or what elite Division One baseball demands now at the end of the day,” Schlossnagle said.
Schlossnagle does expect to be able to rely on sixth-year senior Andre Duplantier on the back end of the bullpen along with junior UTSA transfer Ruger Riojas.
Power arms include junior LSU transfer Aiden Moffatt, junior South Carolina transfer Connor McCreery, junior Ole Miss transfer Grayson Saunier, freshman Jason Flores, and freshman Drew Rerick. Late additions to the class also include talented left-handers Bryce Navarre and Kade Bing, while sophomore right-hander Thomas Burns had front-end starting experience at Arizona State before battling injuries, senior left-hander Will Mercer returns from his season-ending injury last year, and redshirt junior Cody Howard tries to take a step forward after flaming out of the starting rotation last year.