By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter
LSU freshman backup catcher Cade Arrambide hit only .242 last season with four home runs and 14 RBIs in 62 at-bats behind senior Luis Hernandez as the Tigers won the national championship.
LSU Baseball Dominance Part Deux Arrives!https://t.co/yzFBgE9eGo
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) June 22, 2025
But look out for the Arrambide’s sophomore season in 2026.
“I thought Cade probably was the best player on the team for the fall. No question about that,” LSU coach Jay Johnson said at a press conference Monday. “He was the quality at-bats champion. Hit like almost over .650, which against our pitching staff is a pretty good number. Caught, threw well. Managed the pitching staff.”
Johnson also had the No. 41 overall player in Perfect Game’s 2025 recruiting class in freshman catcher Omar Serna Jr., who may play a lot as well.
“I thought he made some really good strides slowing the game down and receiving well,” Johnson said. “He’s got a tremendous arm, like as good as you could ask for. Omar did a great job. I think he’s going to be a great player here for the next three years.”
LSU’s only returning infielder from 2025 will be junior shortstop Steven Milam, who hit .295 and was only charged with five errors in 68 games. So, Johnson added several key transfers, such as senior third baseman Brayden Simpson of High Point, senior Kansas State first baseman Seth Dardar, who played third base and second base in the fall, senior first baseman Zach Yorke of Grand Canyon and junior third baseman Trent Caraway of Oregon State.
After being the No. 10 team in the nation in fielding percentage (.981) last season, Johnson wants his new infielders to take defense very seriously. And he liked what he saw over fall.
“I don’t think we made an error in 18 innings at Southeastern, and I think we made one in 21 innings against Samford, and it was in the outfield,” Johnson said. “So, I feel good about that. I think it’s going to be very important for this team’s success to handle the ball well in the infield.”
Johnson will likely be mixing and matching as he was wont to do last season, utilizing most of his roster regularly.
“Zach Yorke is a very good defensive first baseman, and the rest of the guys have put in a lot of time and handled the ball well,” he said. “Tanner Reaves becoming a better defensive infielder, Trent Caraway has really improved, and we’ve only had him for a semester. But I mean he plays third base like a shortstop, which is great to see.”
LSU may have lost pitchers Kade Anderson and Anthony Eyanson to the Major League Baseball draft, but it brought in some of the best transfer arms in junior Cooper Moore of Kansas, sophomore left-hander Danny Lachenmayer of North Dakota State, senior Dax Dathe of Angelo State, junior left-hander Santiago Garcia of Oregon and left-hander Ethan Plog of Iowa Western Community College.
Those will be added to the mix of incoming freshmen and an impressive array of returning pitchers, such as Casan Evans, Zac Cowan, left-hander Cooper Williams, Mavrick Rizy, William Schmidt, Jaden Noot, left-hander D.J. Primeaux and Gavin Guidry, who is healthy again after missing all of the 2025 season with a core injury.
“We have some figuring out to do, but I feel like we have a really good plan,” Johnson said. “And you can have a good plan when you feel like you have good pitchers. I like the different types of pitchers that we have. I think there’s some ability to match up, ability to get length out of some starters, some guys that could like split either way, and kind of some one-shot seals that could blow your doors off for three outs. So, I’m excited about putting all that together.”
The Tigers start practice on January 12. The season opener is on Friday, Feb. 13, against Milwaukee.
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