Texas baseball doesn’t officially start for another six months, yet for head coach Jim Schlossnagle and the team, fall practice is already underway.
After a tumultuous hiring, Schlossnagle seeks to bring a smooth transition into the SEC for the Longhorns. Texas exited the Big 12 last season with a record of 36–24 after failing to move on to NCAA Tournament Super Regionals with a lackluster performance.
Here are the things that Texas baseball needs to figure out before their season starts:
Who will be on the team?
Interestingly enough, Texas is currently practicing with seven or eight players over the typical roster limit. As well as figuring out team positions, Schlossnagle is figuring out who will be given the opportunity to play.
“You never really know anything until you’re actually playing some games, and then you really don’t know until you get into the season,” Schlossnagle said at Tuesday’s media availability. “But having an opportunity to put them in game-like situations and watch them play is what I look forward to the most.”
This year, the number of allowed players on a Division I NCAA baseball roster has dropped from 40 to 34, although the scholarship limit has jumped from 12 to 34.
“The question in baseball is, are they going to allow us to maybe have a couple extra people in the fall?” Schlossnagle said. “Could we have 38 to get to 34 where, if you have an injury, which is part of pitching, can you replace him with somebody else? We don’t know when that number is going to be set.”
As the season draws closer to its opening, the SEC will be able to give more specifics about the number of players allowed on the team. But it still remains up in the air who will get the final roster spots.
Who will be where on the team?
Although most spots aren’t quite figured out, there are a few that are unquestionable. One of those comes in the form of junior infielder Jalin Flores.
“I have a tough time thinking that Jalin (Flores) wouldn’t be our shortstop,” Schlossnagle said.
Flores had the opportunity to go into the MLB Draft this year but decided to stay with Texas.
“We put a lot of long, long days in those first three weeks here, recruiting the current team back and recruiting new players,” Schlossnagle said.
Redshirt senior catcher Kimble Schuessler is also slated to make a big impact. After playing for Texas A&M his freshman year, Schuessler made four starts during his 2022 season with zero errors. An injury kept him from playing his junior year, but in 53 games in 2024, Schuessler kept his fielding percentage at a smooth .993. His hitting average sat at .343 with 10 home runs and 53 game points.
Although Schuessler’s reputation as a catcher has set this season’s expectations, his main focus is being wherever the team needs him to be.
“I love to catch. But whatever this team needs, I can play a lot of different positions, and I’m going to hit too,” he said.
Schlossnagle mentioned a few other people who caught his eye in the offseason, naming players such as pitchers senior Ace Whitehead and junior Max Grubbs, as well as junior catcher Rylan Galvan, junior infielder Jayden Duplantier and junior outfielder Max Belyeu, who was last season’s Big 12 Player of the Year.
Although most starting positions have yet to be named, Texas is working with 34 roster spots and has six months to figure it out.
What will that team look like?
Schlossnagle already knows exactly what he wants from this team, even if the roster isn’t quite worked out yet.
“There’s nothing that’s too rocket science about my view of baseball,” he said. “But we are certainly going to implement a defensive style of play, which is just straight fundamental baseball.”
With his arrival, Schlossnagle’ hopes to instill a new culture in the dugout. To a player like Schuessler, the basics of that culture are, like the coach’s self-said style, fundamental.
“I think we’re going to be one of the hardest working teams,” Schuessler said. “We’re going to be the most disciplined team in the country, and that’s what we’re going to fall back on.”
