By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson and pitching coach Nate Yeskie might ought to invite LSU football recruiting specialist Ed Orgeron over to Alex Box Stadium today.
Johnson and Yeskie were scheduled to host Northwestern State freshman left-handed pitcher Brody Trosclair (5-1, 1.89 ERA, 1 save) on Wednesday for a recruiting visit after Trosclair entered the NCAA Transfer Portal on Tuesday. Orgeron, who was LSU’s head coach for its 15-0 national championship season in 2019-20, is a former Northwestern State defensive lineman from 1980-83.
Orgeron is also from Larose, which is about 30 minutes from Thibodaux, where Trosclair is from. Trosclair played at Thibodaux High for his father, Shane Trosclair.
Johnson and Yeskie need better pitching badly as the Tigers’ 2026 staff finished with the most walks in the Southeastern Conference at 289 – just four from breaking the school record of 292 set in 1988 in the only season in which coach Skip Bertman did not reach the NCAA postseason. And LSU finished with the worst ERA in the league last season at 5.72, which was not far from the school record worst of 6.08 in 1981.
The Tigers also set the school record for wild pitches last season with 90 – 21 more than the previous LSU record of 69 set in 1999 and tied in 2018. LSU led the SEC in wild pitches in 2026 with 90 – 26 more than second place Kentucky’s 64. And the Tigers finished second in the league in hitting batters with 79.
Trosclair struck out 55 in 38 innings through 10 appearances with 11 walks, four wild pitches and eight hit batsman last season and was named the Southland Conference Freshman of the Year and a first team All-SLC player. He started four games and became the Demons’ Friday night starter before injuring his elbow in early April.
He had surgery later that month in which an internal brace was put in his arm. The procedure is similar to Tommy John surgery that repairs torn ligaments in the elbow and was named after the former Los Angeles Dodger and New York Yankees pitcher, who pitched for six Major League Baseball teams in all from 1963-89. John had the surgery in 1974, and it dramatically turned his career around.
But the internal-brace procedure is not as intrusive as the Tommy John surgery, which reconstructs the ulnar collateral ligament and has a year-to-18-month recovery period. The expected recovery time from the internal-brace surgery for a pitcher is nine to 12 months, so Trosclair could be ready for the 2027 season.
The internal-brace surgery is minimally invasive as it reinforces the damaged ligament with extremely strong synthetic tape, instead of a complete reconstruction. The tape works with natural tissue, speeding up the recovery. Some non-pitchers have returned from the procedure in just four to six months.
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