By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
Former LSU home run hero Tommy White has done his time in the minors and is expected to make his Major League Baseball debut on Friday night for the former Oakland Athletics when they host the Washington Nationals at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California.
He will be reunited with former LSU 2023 national champion Dylan Crews, an outfielder for the Nats hitting .211 with six home runs and 18 RBIs. Crews was the second pick of the first round of the MLB Draft in 2023 after LSU pitcher Paul Skenes went as the No. 1 overall pick to Pittsburgh. White is also now an Athletics teammate of former LSU pitcher Gage Jump, who was called up last May by the A’s and is 3-4 with a 3.51 ERA through nine starts.
White, a second round pick of Oakland in 2024, was called up from Triple-A Las Vegas during the All-Star break this week, which was Monday through Thursday, after hitting .303 with nine home runs and 47 RBIs in 55 games for the Aviators. The first baseman/third baseman previously hit .301 with one home run and 17 RBIs in 21 games this season for the Double-A Midland, Texas RockHounds.
White hit .374 for LSU in 2023 with 24 home runs and led the nation in RBIs with 105.
With no outs and one on in the bottom of the 11th inning against No. 1 Wake Forest on June 22, 2023, at the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, White hit a walk-off, two-run home run to give the Tigers a 2-0 win and send them into the CWS best-of-three national championship series. LSU beat Florida two games to one to win the national title. White hit .351 (11-for-32) in the World Series that year with two home runs and eight RBIs.
White’s walk-off home run was the first by an LSU player at the World Series since Warren Morris’ two-out, two-run home run on June 8, 1996, to beat Miami, 9-8, for the national championship.
A transfer from North Carolina State after the 2022 season, White was a first team All-American and All-SEC player in 2023 for the Tigers.
In the 2024 season at LSU, White hit .330 with 24 home runs and 70 RBIs.
The Athletics left Oakland after the 2024 season and will begin play in a new ballpark in Las Vegas in 2028. They are currently playing their home games in Sacramento – 131 miles from Oakland – at 14,000-seat Sutter Health Park, which is the home of the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats.
White is used to minor league ballparks, including the one in Sacramento. He has played 213 minor league games since 2024, including 19 in a fall league in 2025 in Mesa, Arizona, and has struggled at times. He started with the Single-A Stockton Ports in California, in 2024, hitting .224 with two home runs and 14 RBIs in 25 games.
With Midland the first time in 2025, he hit .322 with one home run and 15 RBIs before hitting .260 for the Single-A Lansing, Michigan, Lugnuts that year with 11 homers and 36 RBIs. At Mesa last fall, he hit .292 with three home runs and 20 RBIs.
The A’s are 41-55 on the season going into the second half and are in fourth place in the American League West – eight games behind first place Texas (49-47). The Nationals (48-49) are in fourth place in the five-team National League East – eight games behind first place Atlanta (55-40).
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