By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson might consider a trip to Las Vegas after the fortune he and the Tigers just got last week.
Second round pick Logan Schmidt, a left-handed pitcher from Ganesha High in Aliso Viejo, California, decided to come to LSU after the Cleveland Guardians made him the 59th pick of the Major League Baseball Draft on July 11.
Schmidt (6-foot-4, 215 pounds) entered the draft as a top 60 prospect, but turned down approximately $1.7 million and a chance to enter the draft again next year by signing with a junior college. Instead he will stay a Tiger after signing with LSU months ago, even though he cannot enter the draft again now until after his junior season at LSU in 2029.
“I’ll be honest,” Johnson said on Tiger Rag Radio this week. “I thought there was a 0.1 percent chance that Logan was going to end up in college at LSU.”
Listen to Johnson’s entire interview on Tiger Rag Radio by clicking the arrow in the red box below.
“So, we feel fortunate to get him and found a pathway to be able to do that,” Johnson said. “Some of it wasn’t even our doing.”
The Guardians drafted Schmidt after not having an agreement beforehand, which is against the norm in the early rounds of the MLB Draft.
“Some of it was draft strategy by the team that selected him that didn’t work out in their favor and worked out in ours,” Johnson said. “It was a place we didn’t feel like we would be, but certainly happy that that’s what happened and really excited to add him.”
Johnson was asked if LSU may have been out of or running low on NIL-related roster money since Schmidt’s decision happened so late after the dollar figures for the rest of his roster were likely settled, particularly with an impressive array of talent via the portal.
“That’s what I would call good problems as to what you’re referring to,” Johnson said.
Schmidt will likely be a favorite to be in LSU’s Southeastern Conference weekend rotation next season.
“He’s got tremendous stuff. My favorite quality is it’s just strike after strike after strike after strike,” said Johnson, whose pitching staff last season struggled mightily with walks and wild pitches. “He really fills up the strike zone. Excellent fastball command.”
Schmidt throws in the mid-to-upper 90s, but doesn’t everybody now? Schmidt has another more critical quality.
“He’s a pitcher, not a thrower,” Johnson said. “He has very loud stuff, but he’s a pitcher by trade. He’s like Kade Anderson or Anthony Eyanson (LSU’s top two starters in the 2025 national championship season), who were true pitchers. They could blow you away with fastballs, but have the ability to speed the hitter up, slow him down with different shapes, both sides of the plate, up and down. He’s young. Just turned 18. He’s been coached really well. Can’t wait to see what he can do for the LSU baseball program.”
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