An offseason of waiting for the return of Florida State baseball season is nearly finished.

The Seminoles kicked off preseason camp last Friday three weeks out from their Feb. 14 season opener and head coach Link Jarrett holds his first press conference of the preseason Tuesday morning.

FSU has a lot of pieces to replace off last year's team. Two players were drafted in the first 14 picks and eight Seminoles overall were taken in the 20-round 2024 MLB Draft after that year's FSU squad made the program's first trip to the College World Series since 2019.

Despite those losses, the 2025 Seminoles enter the season with quite high expectations. Baseball America ranked FSU sixth in its preseason top 25 rankings while D1Baseball ranked the Seminoles ninth.

Early in preseason camp, here are three questions the Seminoles will need to answer over the next few weeks.

FSU enters the 2025 season with one sure thing atop its pitching rotation in junior Jamie Arnold.

The Tampa native and lefty is back in Tallahassee after he was a first-team All-American and All-ACC pitcher in 2024, posting a 2.98 ERA and 11-3 record with 159 strikeouts and just 26 walks over 105.2 innings of work.

Arnold enters 2025 as MLB.com's No. 3 overall prospect and No. 1 pitcher in its ranking of 2025 MLB Draft prospects. But before Arnold can be taken in the draft in July, he's set to spend one more season anchoring FSU's pitching staff.

Aside from Arnold, there's not much that is certain in terms of FSU's starting pitchers as preseason camp begins. That being said, FSU is not lacking in options to fill out these rotation spots. The FSU coaching staff learned some valuable lessons from how injuries depleted its pitching depth in 2024, bringing in five D-I transfer pitchers and two junior-college arms to give the staff a variety of options.

The return of Cam Leiter to action would be a big boost to FSU's rotation. The high-octane UCF transfer started the 2024 season as the Friday starter and had a 4.63 ERA over 35 innings before he suffered an injury, which would eventually end his season. The only problem is that Leiter has suffered setbacks this offseason and isn't expected to be ready for the start of the season. If he can ever get healthy enough to return to action, that would be a big help to FSU's pitching staff.

In Leiter's absence, there are a few other transfers contending for weekend starter spots into the start of preseason camp. Ole Miss transfer Wes Mendes, another lefty arm and high-school teammate of Arnold's at Jesuit, was among the most impressive FSU pitchers throughout fall ball.

Jacksonville transfer Evan Chrest struggled for the Dolphins in 2024 with a 5.06 ERA. However, he was the Atlantic Sun Freshman of the Year in 2023, putting up a 2.68 ERA over 90.2 innings. If he's able to rediscover that form under FSU pitching coach Micah Posey, he'll be quite a formidable arm FSU could use in its rotation after Arnold.

USF transfer Joey Volini, another Jesuit product, made his return from Tommy John surgery last season in a midweek game vs. FSU. Although he doesn't have the best stuff, like some other contenders, he's got great pitchability and had a career 4.05 ERA over 40 innings across two season for the Bulls.

A wild card in the starter conversation is Jacob Marlowe. After transferring from UCF to FSU ahead of the 2024 season, Marlowe missed the entire season after undergoing a pair of open-heart surgeries, which stemmed from a childhood condition. Marlowe returned to action in the Cape Cod League and was effective with a 2.95 ERA over 18.1 innings and has continued to look ready for a return to collegiate action throughout this offseason.

This list of names gives FSU quite a few options to explore over the next few weeks in determining the two options to work behind Arnold on a pitching staff that could be much improved and certainly appears a good bit deeper than the 2024 staff was.

We'll see who emerges from that heap and if FSU's depth has improved enough that it can even pin a certain arm to take over the midweek starting role as well.

While FSU loses a handful of pitchers off the 2024 team, it has far more that it will need to replace in the lineup.

Gone are five everyday starters who all hit above .300 and mashed a combined 90 of FSU's 131 home runs during the 2024 season. The Seminoles are left having to replace both corner outfielders and both corner infielders with Jaime Ferrer, James Tibbs III, Cam Smith and Daniel Cantu all either out of eligibility or off to pro ball. They also lost Marco Dinges after just one season -- probably earlier than expected -- after the TCC transfer was a remarkable DH for the Seminoles in 2024.

There are a few pieces to build around. Jaxson West is back behind the plate after coming on strong as a hitter late in the season. Max Williams (team-high 14 returning home runs) will be back in the outfield, probably in center, again. 2024 transfers Alex Lodise (shortstop) and Drew Faurot (second base) are also back to anchor the middle infield after taking over those roles last season and forming quite a nice chemistry together.

Those returners aside, the rest of the lineup will likely see a number of new faces and returners who had small rotational roles in 2024 stepping into some big shoes for the 2025 Seminoles.

Does sophomore Cal Fisher (.277 with five homers in 65 at-bats in 2024) step into Smith's shoes at third base? Do transfers Gage Harrelson (.300 batting average, 25 stolen bases over two seasons at Texas Tech) and Chase Williams (.379 average, 29 stolen bases, 71 runs last season at Northwest Florida State College) round out the outfield around Williams?

How do FSU's top two freshman signees who made it to campus, catcher Hunter Carns (No. 2 on Perfect Game's list of the top 75 2025 true freshman) and first baseman Myles Bailey (No. 27 true freshman according to Perfect Game), make an immediate impact? Carns isn't going to be FSU's everyday catcher with West back so does he settle into the DH spot to get regular at-bats? Can Bailey, who has a strong case for the most power on the 2025 FSU roster, beat out junior-college addition Blaydon Plain for the starting spot at first or do the two split time?

With such uncertainty about so many spots entering preseason camp, it seems likely that FSU will rely on a larger group of position players early in the season to see how things play out during non-conference play before possibly locking into a smaller group of starters once conference play kicks off in March.

As important as the production FSU lost off the 2024 squad was, the leadership lost may be just as important.

Guys likes James Tibbs III, Cam Smith and Jaime Ferrer in the lineup as well as Conner Whittaker and Brennan Oxford on the mound brought some valuable experience and leadership to a team that, like this year's team, had a number of players stepping into new or much larger roles.

One would imagine that Jamie Arnold will help fill some of that void considering the buzz surrounding him entering his junior season. The return of Joe Charles in the bullpen for his sixth season of college baseball gives FSU a strong closer candidate as well as a veteran voice for the staff of relief pitchers.

Max Williams, Jaxson West, Alex Lodise and Drew Faurot are all entering their second seasons at FSU and their third seasons in college baseball and are likely candidates to step into leadership roles on the position player side.

However, it will be worth monitoring if any new faces are willing and able to immediately become leaders for the Seminoles. Does a transfer pitcher naturally take over a leadership role? Do one of the freshman hitters make such a strong impact right away on the field that they become one of the leaders within their first season in college baseball?

It may not be as important a question as finding the production lost off last year's team, but considering the ups and downs that are sure to come over the course of a long college baseball season, finding those stabilizing leaders is no doubt an important offseason task for the FSU roster and coaching staff.

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