LSU Baseball 2026 Season Preview: Predictions & Players To Watch

The Southeastern 16 crew of Graham Doty, Alfred Ezman and Chris Lee previews LSU baseball for the 2026 season. Topics include: There’s no debate: LSU, after winning last year’s national title (making it two in the last three years) is the country’s best program. The Tigers have continuity, thanks to Jay Johnson and a stable staff that’s been in Baton Rouge for multiple years. LSU’s pitching is loaded. The headliner is Casan Evans, last year’s star reliever who transitioned to starting late in last year and was spectacular there, too. The Tigers have a ton of elite, returning arms who will be factors, including Zac Cowan, Jayden Noot, William Schmidt, Mavrick Rizy, Cooper Williams, Connor Benge and DJ Primeaux. Also look out for Gavin Guidry, who’ll try to pitch (and should, though the timeline is uncertain as of January) again this year. Guidry was a valuable part of LSU’s bullpen in 2024 but missed last year after surgery. The Tigers got elite arms Regan Ricken and Marcos Paz through the draft, too. Each should have significant roles in 2026. The offensive headliner is draft-eligible-sophomore outfielder Derek Curiel, who was a superstar as a freshman. Curiel seems to be LSU’s center fielder after playing left last year, and is a candidate for this year’s Golden Spikes Award, as well as to go top-10-overall in the 2026 MLB Draft. Returning shortstop Stephen Milam is one of the country’s best and perhaps the heartbeat of the team. Right fielder Jake Brown could have a breakout year and John Pearson stands to be one of the top outfield reserves, with Chris Stanfield again returning to start, though likely in left. LSU killed it in the transfer market with infielders Trent Carraway (Oregon State), Seth Dardar (Kansas State), Brayden Simpson (High Point) and Zach Yorke (Grand Canyon). Catcher might be the biggest question, but Cade Arrambide played well in 75 plate appearances as a freshman. LSU got several highly-regarded bats through the draft, too, including outfielder William Patrick. Are the Tigers the best team in the country? We’ve got an opinion on that, and more! &COLLAR Use promo code SEC16 for 16% off! YEARLY CO Use promo code SE16KIT for a free sizing kit! https://yearlyco.com/ ROKFORM Use promo code SEC25 for 25% off! The world's strongest magnetic phone case! https://www.rokform.com/ JOIN OUR MEMBERSHIP Join the "It Just Means More" tier for bonus videos and live streams! Join Link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv1w_TRbiB0yHCEb7r2IrBg/join FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA Twitter: https://twitter.com/16Southeastern ADVERTISE WITH SOUTHEASTERN 16 Reach out to [email protected] to find out how your product or service can be seen by over 200,000 unique viewers each month! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.