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Five Florida State baseball questions as preseason camp begins

Wyatt Crowell
Wyatt Crowell ()

After months of waiting for the much anticipated start of the Link Jarrett era, Florida State baseball season is almost upon us.

The Seminoles officially begin their preseason camp Friday afternoon, three weeks out from Jarrett’s first game as head coach of his alma mater on Feb. 17 vs. James Madison.

While the long-term expectations are high for the Seminoles under Jarrett, there aren’t a ton of immediate expectations for FSU, which was left out of Baseball America and D1Baseball’s preseason top 25 polls.

Before the Seminoles get the preseason started, here are five questions about the team that need to be addressed over the next few weeks.

How much of an instant impact can Jarrett and his staff make?

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Anyone who’s seen the FSU baseball team over the last few years knows there were some consistent issues keeping the Seminoles from maximizing their potential.

Strikeout numbers have been growing across baseball, but they were not proportionate to the remarkably high rate at which FSU hitters were striking out. The Seminoles struck out 599 times in 2021 and 583 times in 2022. Those marks of 10.8 and 9.9 strikeouts per game, respectively, stand as the two largest such numbers in FSU baseball history. This played a big role in FSU’s .263 batting average in 2022, which was third-worst among ACC schools.

In the field, each of the last 11 FSU teams have posted a fielding percentage of .970 or worse.

By comparison, Notre Dame improved quickly and dramatically in these facets when Jarrett took over that job ahead of the 2020 season. The Irish hit .249 with a .964 fielding percentage in 2019 and then proceeded to hit .281 or better with .980 or better fielding percentages in each of his two full seasons there.

If Jarrett can make the same immediate impact at FSU, it should make for a much more watchable product this season even if the roster isn’t yet as talented as it should be in the future.


Carson Montgomery
Carson Montgomery ()

  Who steps up in the weekend rotation?  

Perhaps the single biggest question about the FSU baseball roster entering this season is who steps into the large shoes vacated by the MLB Draft departures of Parker Messick and Bryce Hubbart, two multi-year weekend starting pitchers for the Seminoles.

Messick and Hubbart gave the Seminoles a combined 29 wins and 335.2 innings over the last two seasons. Finding players to take not just their spots, but their sizable innings won’t be easy.

One clear candidate to push for the Friday starting spot is junior Wyatt Crowell.

The Cumming, Ga., native has made 41 relief appearances over his first two seasons. In 2022, he emerged as a very reliable long-relief option for the Seminoles, throwing 51 innings over 28 appearances and recording six wins, two saves and a 2.12 ERA.

Crowell was a strikeout machine out of the FSU bullpen, amassing 72 while allowing a .201 opponent’s batting average. For him, the key to this preseason will be determining if he’s able to be as effective while stretched out the pitch count of a starter. Crowell has never started a game on the mound for the Seminoles.

Behind him, sophomore Conner Whittaker is a major contender for one of the three weekend starting spots. As a freshman in 2022, Whittaker had a team-best 1.77 ERA over 20 relief appearances, which spanned 35.2 innings. Like Crowell, though, he’s never started a game at this level.

A good bit of the limited starting experience FSU’s pitching staff has comes from Carson Montgomery. Of the 14 returning starts FSU pitchers made last season, Montgomery made 12 of them.

The Windermere, Fla., native remains extraordinarily talented, but he’s been unable to maintain a weekend starting role in each of his first two seasons with the Seminoles. Last season, he posted a 5.00 ERA, but he had far more success as a closer for FSU after struggling as a starter.

Whether Montgomery is a starter or the closer this season remains to be seen. If new pitching coach Chuck Ristano is able to refine Montgomery’s gifts, he could be perhaps the single-most talented pitcher on the FSU roster.

Maybe sophomore Jackson Baumeister, who accounted for the other two returning starts last season, or an incoming freshman like Jamie Arnold will push for a starting spot.

Whoever emerges and how promising a preseason the unit has will go a long way towards determining the Seminoles’ ceiling this season.

How deep will FSU’s bullpen be?

Similarly to the weekend rotation, FSU’s bullpen has a few major vacancies it needs to address.

Between the graduations of Jonah Scolaro (26 relief appearances in 2022) and Davis Hare (25 relief appearances in 2022) and the likely move of Crowell to the rotation, FSU will have to replace its three most heavily-used relievers from last season in this year’s pen.

While neither Scolaro nor Hare were the flashiest of pitchers, both were reliable inning-eaters for FSU, posting a combined 3.46 ERA over 80.2 innings in 2022.

Especially with more questions about FSU’s starting pitching depth this season, finding a good number of bullpen arms will be critical for the Seminoles.

It’s possible that Baumeister, who made 17 of his 19 appearances as a freshman out of the bullpen, will be a featured bullpen arm for the Seminoles. Or maybe Montgomery emerges as a better relief option for high-leverage spots than as a closer.

There are a few pitchers who had minimal roles last year such as Andrew Armstrong and David Barrett, who could be ready for the next step in their development. Doug Kirkland, who missed each of the last two seasons after having Tommy John surgery, is another breakout candidate.

Wake Forest transfer Brennen Oxford is another candidate for a significant bullpen role. He didn’t have an especially impressive career with the Demon Deacons (6.07 career ERA), but he was lights out last summer at the Cape Cod League, posting a 0.69 ERA over 26 innings.

The large group of freshman pitchers FSU brought in, nine of them in all, is also likely to be expected to provide at least a couple of instant contributors out of necessity.


What newcomers make an instant impact in the lineup?

The holes FSU has to fill in the lineup aren’t as significant as on the pitching staff. They definitely still exist, however.

FSU is losing four players who had 200-plus plate appearances last season in veteran outfielder Reese Albert, versatile starter Logan Lacey and a pair of impactful one-year transfers in first baseman Alex Toral and second baseman Brett Roberts. That leaves a few spots where newcomers will push for playing time right away.

Some of these replacements seem obvious. Cam Smith, FSU’s highest-rated 2023 recruit, passed up being a potentially very high MLB Draft pick to enroll at FSU. The 6-foot-3, 221-pound freshman is expected to immediately take over at third base.

Behind the plate, West Virginia transfer McGwire Holbrook will try to take the starting catcher job from incumbent returning starter Colton Vincent. Holbrook was a second-team All-Big 12 player last year at WVU, hitting .318 with seven home runs and 46 runs batted in.

One player who is technically a newcomer, but also a familiar face, is infielder Nander De Sedas, who is transferring to FSU after spending the 2022 season at Missouri. De Sedas was FSU’s primary shortstop from 2019-21, starting 131 games for the Seminoles to mixed success with a .206 batting average and 31 errors over his FSU career.

However, De Sedas had a much more successful season with the Tigers last year, hitting .278 with an on-base percentage of .373 and a slugging percentage of .391, all career bests.

De Sedas won’t be returning to start at shortstop. That spot is held by returning starter Jordan Carrion. That being said, he could be a valuable spot starter or rotational player at second base in his second life with the Seminoles.

In the outfield, two freshmen could claim starting spots right away. Jacksonville St. John’s Country Day product Jordan Taylor was the second-highest-rated FSU signee behind Smith and has the range to play centerfield right away for the Seminoles. Additionally, freshman DeAmez Ross was one of the more impressive players of the fall for the Seminoles and could claim a starting spot in his first season.


Who will be the team leaders?

In terms of age, this year’s FSU baseball team is not too different from the FSU men’s basketball team this year.

Of the 40 players on FSU baseball’s roster for the upcoming season, only three of them are seniors.

While leadership may not be as important in baseball as it is in basketball, there’s no doubt that having a few players willing to take that vocal leader role during games, at practice and in meetings is important over the course of a long and arduous season.

Who those players are for FSU remains to be seen. Is sophomore outfielder Jaime Ferrer, fresh off an impressive freshman campaign, which earned him a Freshman All-American honor from Collegiate Baseball, ready for that role?

Sophomore James Tibbs is another younger candidate after hitting 10 home runs last year as a true freshman. However, he’s missed the offseason after undergoing surgery.

Maybe Crowell, the most likely candidate to take over the Friday starter role, steps into that role. Maybe it’s De Sedas, who has familiarity with a number of players on this team and is in his fifth season of college baseball.

Or maybe it’s someone else entirely out of left field who becomes FSU’s vocal leader.

Whoever those people may be, it will no doubt be important to determine the leaders before the Seminoles reach the meat of their schedule starting in March.

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