Ad Disclosure
College baseball preview: 10 burning questions about the 2025 season
By Chris Wright
Published:
Nothing could top the 2023 college baseball season.
And then 2024 showed up — producing another SEC national champion and 3 of the greatest individual seasons in the SEC’s storied history.
In the past 2 years alone, the SEC produced 14 first-round draft picks and forced countless revisions to the record books.
Nicknames like Jac-tani, Tanks and CMo became part of our baseball vernacular.
There’s no way more magic awaits in 2025, right?
Maybe?
10 key storylines in and around SEC baseball
Opening Day is here. Will the SEC extend its run of College World Series titles? Who are the next big names to know? Here are 10 key storylines as we count down the minutes until the first pitch of 2025.
1. Can the SEC make it 6 straight CWS titles?
Vegas certainly thinks so.
Per FanDuel Sportsbook, reigning champion Tennessee (+750), Texas A&M (+900), LSU (+950) and Arkansas (+1100) have the best odds to win the College World Series. Virginia is next, but then Florida (+1600) and Texas (+2600) also are in the top 10.
Tennessee outlasted Texas A&M in a thrilling best-of-3 CWS finals last year. That was the Vols’ first title — and the SEC’s 5th consecutive. Notably and impressively, all 5 titles were won by different programs.
Baseball America believes, too.
SEC teams occupied the top 4 spots in BA’s preseason poll, led by No. 1 Texas A&M.
Because it’s never too early to start thinking about Omaha, BA also projected a record 13 SEC teams to make the 64-team NCAA Tournament.
2. Texas A&M: New coach, same mission
There’s no way to sugarcoat the way Jim Schlossnagle left Texas A&M for Texas. There’s also no need to rehash how poorly he handled an obviously awkward situation.
Or how quickly A&M fans circled April 25-27, when the Aggies travel to Texas for the most anticipated series of the season.
The Aggies rebounded, though, and quickly promoted hitting coach Michael Earley, whom university president Mark A. Welsh III described as a “budding superstar leading Aggie baseball.”
Earley is a first-time manager, and clearly the task is daunting. But he’s widely respected among coaching circles as a hitting whisperer and clearly has the trust of everybody in the clubhouse.
Texas A&M is going to hit — and not just because the Aggies retained the best player in college baseball and then added somebody with even more career home runs. Speaking of …
3. Will Jace LaViolette go No. 1 overall?
Soon after Schlossnagle bolted, Texas A&M star Jace LaViolette entered the transfer portal. Other key Aggies did, too, but LaViolette was the headliner.
There’s zero coincidence that the Aggies’ stars all returned as soon as Earley was named manager.
“I cried when I heard Mike was our new coach,” LaViolette told reporters last summer. “That’s how much this man means to me and means to this team. He’s our rock. He’s our foundation. He’s one of the reasons why we were in Omaha. He’s one of the reasons why this team was so damn good. Excuse my language, but I get fired up talking about him.
“I could run through a brick wall for that guy. I love him. I could go to war for him. Same with the whole team, it’s going to be unbelievable.”
Unbelievable is one way to describe LaViolette’s power potential.
LaViolette hit 21 home runs as a freshman and 29 last season.
Barring injury, LaViolette is as close to a lock as possible to join Tommy White in college baseball’s exclusive 20-20-20 home run club. (South Carolina’s Ethan Petry also is a 20-20-20 candidate, but more on him later.)
Already with 50 career home runs, LaViolette needs just 6 more to become Texas A&M’s career leader — and he needs 31 to supplant Eddy Furniss as the SEC’s career leader.
At 6-6, 230, he’s built like Jac Caglianone — and has just as much power.
MLB.com ranks LaViolette the No. 2 overall draft prospect and top college prospect.
His bat and power potential are the biggest reasons he’s solidly in the mix to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 MLB Draft.
4. Who wins the SEC HR crown?
Entering the 2023 season, just 2 hitters in SEC history had hit 30 or more home runs in a season — and nobody had done it since 2000.
In 2023, Jac Caglianone smashed 33, setting Florida’s single-season record. It didn’t last long. Cags followed with 35 last season.
That was a Florida record, but it wasn’t enough to lead the SEC.
Georgia’s Charlie Condon mashed a program-record 37 home runs. Tennessee’s Christian Moore hit 34 to set Tennessee’s mark.
In 1 year, 3 SEC sluggers set program records for single-season home runs, and in the process, that trio also combined to produce more 30-home run hitters than the league had in its pre-Caglianone history.
The question in 2025 isn’t whether we’ll add another slugger to the 30-home run club, but which one will it be?
We’ve discussed LaViolett’s merits. Petry has as much raw power as anybody in the country; if he can reduce his strikeout rate, he could make a run at 30.
LSU’s Jared Jones is a preseason All-SEC first-team selection — for good reason. He hit 28 homers last season, doubling his freshman output.
Those 3 are the household names and most likely candidates to crash the 30-home run ceiling this season.
5. Oh, brother …
Last season, Mississippi State hurler Jurrangelo Cijntje turned heads with his rare ability to pitch with either arm. It wasn’t just for show, either. Cijntje was so elite the Seattle Mariners selected him with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft.
This season, Oklahoma has a pair of twin aces who are turning heads. Literal twins.
Juniors Kyson and Malachi Witherspoon are fresh off a dominant summer, excelling in the premier Cape Cod League and making Team USA’s national college team.
Now they’re tasked with leading Oklahoma’s staff in their first taste of SEC baseball.
Obviously, it’s not easy to tell them apart. Malachi is 6-3, 211 and wears No. 25. Kyson is 6-2, 207 and wears No. 26. Both are right-handed with similar power stuff.
Kyson has the higher ceiling though, with a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and has touched 99. MLB.com ranked him as the No. 26 prospect in the 2025 MLB Draft. He’s an experienced starter who went 8-3 last year and led OU with a 3.71 ERA.
Malachi has been a reliever who led OU with 5 saves last season, but that could change. His development over the summer has him in position to join Kyson in the weekend rotation.
6. SEC pitching is loaded … again
Imagine being ranked the No. 26 draft prospect in the country — and still not earning preseason first-team All-SEC honors.
That’s Kyson’s fate — but it’s also an indication of the SEC’s pitching depth.
Thirteen SEC pitchers appeared in MLB.com’s preseason ranking of the Top 100 draft prospects. Twelve of them were ranked behind Kyson.
LSU had 3 pitchers ranked in the top 100 — led by No. 38 prospect Chase Shores. Gavin Guidry didn’t make the top-100 ranking — no doubt at least in part because he’s a closer, but he’s one of the most reliable late-game arms in the league.
Tennessee had 3 pitchers ranked among the top 100 prospects.
7. Why Florida’s Liam Peterson is the most important player in college baseball
Two years ago, Liam Peterson was viewed as one of the best high school pitching prospects in the country.
Mentioned as a fringe first-round prospect, most expected him to bypass college altogether.
Last season, SEC hitters reminded Florida’s freshman starter that the gap between prep ball and the best college conference in America is steep, relentless and unforgiving.
Peterson’s mid-90s fastball plays anywhere, but his inability to consistently command it led to mixed results and a temporary move to the bullpen.
Did Florida put too much on its touted recruit too soon? Maybe. He was the Gators’ Saturday starter, after all.
Peterson spent the offseason addressing mechanical flaws that made it difficult to repeat his delivery. His motion is now shorter, smoother, simpler — which means less can go wrong from the time his hands break until he releases the ball.
If he figures it out — again, the stuff plays — Florida is a threat to get back to Omaha for the 6th time in the past 10 tournaments.
If the struggles continue, this lineup lacks the 1-swing firepower to overcome it.
8. What’s a fair expectation for Tennessee?
Nobody has repeated as national champion since South Carolina went back-to-back in 2010 and 2011.
The most recent team to even reach consecutive CWS finals was Vanderbilt, which won the 2019 title and then lost to Mississippi State in the 2021 finals. Even that came with a caveat, as COVID wiped out the 2020 CWS.
Winning once is difficult enough. Playing baseball on the final day of the season in back-to-back years in this era is next-level challenging.
So what’s fair for Tennessee, which ended decades of angst and quieted old-school naysayers by winning its first CWS title last season?
Coaches picked the Vols to finish 2nd in the SEC. Baseball America ranked the Vols No. 3 in its preseason Top 25 — behind 2 other SEC programs.
No matter whose opinion you value most, the key takeaway is that this program isn’t expected to regress in 2025. Despite losing a generational talent like Christian Moore, 4 other key starters and 3 quality arms.
The Vols had 8 players drafted last summer — including their first 5 hitters in the CWS finals. Not that Tennessee needs any PR help, but those 8 players received signing bonuses totaling more than $12 million, by the way.
Tony Vitello reloaded by bringing in the nation’s No. 7 transfer portal class. The headliners are Gavin Kilen, who played shortstop at Louisville but will replace Moore at second base with the Vols, and third baseman Andrew Fischer (Ole Miss). BA ranked both newcomers among the top 10 transfers. They’ll play alongside draft-eligible sophomore shortstop Dean Curley — a preseason All-SEC first-team pick and No. 24-rated prospect in the 2025 MLB Draft.
Tennessee’s rotation also will look different, but all 3 projected weekend starters are among the top 100 draft prospects in the country.
Translation: Nobody is a lock to get to Omaha, but few teams have more talent than these Vols.
9. Speaking of transfers, here are 5 more to know …
Anthony Eyanson (LSU): LSU’s weekend rotation is stacked, and Eyanson is right in the middle of it after 2 standout seasons as a starter at UC-San Diego. BA ranked Eyanson the No. 4 transfer in America. He also pitched in relief for the USA college national team this summer.
Blake Cyr (Florida): Nobody is replacing Caglianone’s power, but Cyr, a transfer from Miami, is expected to hit in the middle of the Gators’ lineup. He hit 17 home runs as an All-American freshman at Miami in 2023, but injuries limited him to just 20 games last season.
Wyatt Henseler (Texas A&M): Henseler dominated lower-level pitching at Penn, but it will be interesting to see how he handles the significant step up — as well as a position change from third base to second base. For what it’s worth, the senior has hit 54 career home runs, which makes him college baseball’s active co-leader (Mississippi State’s Hunter Hines). He joins a lineup led by LaViolette, so protection won’t be an issue.
Zach Root (Arkansas): SEC media picked Arkansas to finish 3rd. BA ranked the Hogs No. 4 in the country to start the season. It’s more of the same, in other words for Dave Van Horn. Arkansas features 2 pitchers ranked in BA’s Top 100 draft prospects list — and added Root, a lefty who went 6-2 as part of East Carolina’s weekend rotation last season.
Cade Fisher (Auburn): Fisher needed a fresh start after a rough sophomore season at Florida, where he went from Friday night starter to middle reliever. He’s not overpowering, but he’ll be part of the weekend mix at Auburn.
10. Who are the biggest threats to the SEC’s reign?
How’s this for dominance?
If you include new SEC member Oklahoma, each of the past 4 CWS finals were an SEC vs. SEC affair. More impressive, all 8 of those finalists were different programs.
- 2024: Tennessee defeated Texas A&M
- 2023: LSU defeated Florida
- 2022: Ole Miss defeated Oklahoma
- 2021: Mississippi State defeated Vanderbilt
This season, the top 4 teams in Baseball America’s preseason poll were SEC teams. Three more appeared in the top 15.
Stopping this run won’t be easy, but the ACC appears to be in the best position to do it.
No. 5 Virginia, No. 6 FSU, No. 8 Clemson and No. 10 Duke all feature high-level MLB prospects.
FSU ace Jamie Arnold might be the best pitcher in the country. Clemson outfielder Cam Cannarella is a viable threat to win the Golden Spikes Award. Virginia’s infield is as decorated as any in the nation.
There is plenty of talent. Does 1 outsider have enough depth to win a best-of-3 and temporarily halt the SEC’s run?
Only time will tell. The best we can hope for is that the ride to Omaha is just as thrilling in 2025 as it was the past 2 seasons.
Managing Editor
A 30-time APSE award-winning editor with previous stints at the Miami Herald, The Indianapolis Star and News & Observer, Executive Editor Chris Wright oversees editorial operations for Saturday Down South.
