By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson saw only nine of his 22 high school signees for 2027 taken in the Major League Baseball Draft over the weekend after he projected as many as 13 or 14 to get picked just last week.
And of those nine, he could possibly lose only three or four to MLB contracts. So, his take of his signing class could be in the high teens.
Drafted players have until Aug. 1 to sign with the Major League organization that drafted them, but Johnson already has a good idea of who he will be retaining.
“We did a lot of sweating over the past couple of weeks, but very happy that a lot of those guys chose to start their path to Major League Baseball at LSU,” Johnson said on WAFB Channel 9 sports director Jacques Doucet’s “Jacques Talk” on Monday.
Doucet will be on Tiger Rag Radio Tuesday night.
The LSU signees drafted that Johnson will likely not keep are left-handed pitcher Logan Schmidt of Alisa Viejo, California (2nd round, 59 overall, $1.6 million slot value) by Cleveland, right-handed pitcher Jensen Hirschkorn of Kingsbury, California (3rd round, 84 overall, $973,700 slot value) by Atlanta and outfielder Wessley Roberson of Brunswick, Georgia (4th round, 115th overall, $677,500 slot value) by Miami.
The only other signee drafted with a slot value was right-handed pitcher Dylan Blomker of Albuquerque, New Mexico (5th round, 159 overall, $441,300 slot value) by the Chicago Cubs.
The other five of the drafted signees Johnson already feels he has or has a very good shot of keeping are:
Left-handed pitcher Spencer Evans, 11th Round, Pick 318, Ocoee, Florida … Pittsburgh Pirates
First baseman 1B Will Adams, 11th Round, Pick 336, Hoover, Alabama … Detroit Tigers
Outfielder Anthony Murphy, 16th Round, Pick 466, Corona, California … Washington Nationals
Outfielder Malachi Washington, 18th Round, Pick 528, Stone Mountain, Georgia. … Pittsburgh Pirates
Outfielder Dominic Santarelli, 18th Round, Pick 550, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin … Seattle Mariners
“Santarelli is my version of Ivan Drago (boxer from the Rocky IV movie),” Johnson said proudly and said he and Washington are LSU bound.
Santarelli (6-foot-2, 230 pounds) is a left-handed hitting powerhouse who Perfect Game ranked as the No. 45 draft prospect, while Washington is its No. 28 prospect.
“Both of them (Santarelli and Washington) could’ve been drafted higher,” Johnson said. “But they held themselves in high value and held this opportunity at LSU in high value, and the teams that drafted them didn’t meet it. And good for the Tigers that that’s the case. And they’re going to be here for three years.”
Johnson also mentioned right-handed pitcher and Perfect Game No. 173 prospect Coleton Brady of North Collins, New York. Brady took his name out of the draft after not going in the first four rounds on Saturday.
“He came down for summer school last week, then went home for the draft,” Johnson said. “That can go either way. But he made a decision Saturday night that he wanted to come back and be a part of this. That will be an excellent thing for LSU, and it’ll be a great thing for Coleton.”
Johnson saved some sweat just before the draft when Perfect Game No. 50 prospect Lucas Nawrocki, a left-handed pitcher and lefty hitter from Aledo, Texas, did not like the money amounts he was hearing from MLB teams and took his name out of the draft.
Asked if Nawrocki will pitch and hit for the Tigers, Johnson said, “No doubt about it. He will be doing both at LSU. He has a chance to be a premier player for three years. We need the left-handed help on the mound, obviously, and he’s got all the great metrics.”
So, too, does this LSU class.
Among the other higher ranked LSU signees who were not drafted were right-handed pitcher and No. 83 Perfect Game prospect Cooper Sides of Orange, California, No. 162 prospect right-handed pitcher Kolby Stringer of Foxworth, Mississippi, and No. 97 prospect shortstop Parker Loew of Jacksonville, Florida.
Jacob Rudner of Baseball America listed LSU as the No. 2 roster winner after the draft behind Tennessee on Monday. That tabulation took into account the potential signees lost from the draft and the eight LSU players who were taken in the draft – none of whom are expected back. Those were:
Outfielder Derek Curiel, 1st Round, Pick 5 … Pittsburgh Pirates
Outfielder Jake Brown, 2nd Round, Pick 65 … Seattle Mariners
Right-handed pitcher Deven Sheerin, 4th Round, Pick 128 … Philadelphia Phillies
Right-handed pitcher Grant Fontenot, 10th Round, Pick 299 … Kansas City Royals
Left-handed pitcher Santiago Garcia, 12th Round, Pick 372 … Toronto Blue Jays
Right-handed pitcher Connor Benge, 13th Round, Pick 385 … Miami Marlins
Right-handed pitcher Gavin Guidry, 16th Round, Pick 480 … New York Mets
Right-handed pitcher Zac Cowan, 19th Round, Pick 573 … Cleveland Guardians
“Jay Johnson will enter next season with far more remaining talent than the number of drafted Tigers might suggest,” Rudner wroter.
Rudner, by the way, will be discussing LSU’s roster on Tuesday night on Tiger Rag Radio.
Considering the portal players Johnson had last season that were disappointments, he sounded convinced the way to maintain a national championship program like LSU’s with two national titles since 2023 is mainly through the high school ranks. Johnson had said that last season as the Tigers began their slide to one of their worst campaigns in history at 30-28 and 9-21 in the SEC.
“With the young players that we brought in, we’re really focused on a three-year commitment,” he said. “I don’t want to do the in-and-out and modern college athletics thing in the portal all the time. And so I feel good about how these players (the signees) feel good about how they feel about their opportunities here.”
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